Electric Picnic, one of Ireland's leading festivals, has today (March 11) announced the initial lineup for its 2020 iteration. The sold-out three-day event, taking place September 4-6 in Stradbally Hall in Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland, has confirmed headliners Rage Against The Machine, who recently reunited for the first time in nearly a decade, Snow Patrol, The Chemical Brothers, Irish group Picture This and Lewis Capaldi. The lineup also includes Run The Jewels, Denzel Curry, Skepta, Annie Mac, Rick Astley, Helena Hauff and others, with many more to be announced.
The festival's lineup announcement comes in the midst of the global coronavirus outbreak, which has recently caused multiple festivals and tours around the world to cancel or postpone, including Coachella and Stagecoach in Southern California as well as Ultra Music Festival in Miami and SXSW in Austin.
In an interview with Irish daily newspaper The Irish Times, festival organizer Melvin Benn of Festival Republic, the company behind Electric Picnic, said he does not expect to cancel or postpone the festival due to the coronavirus.
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"I'm not worried about it at all," he said. "I'm full steam ahead unless the governments here and in the U.K. say we can't go ahead... I'm 100 per cent of the belief that by June we will all be over the hump and we will all have forgotten about it, quite frankly, and all you buggers will find something else to write about it.
"At this point in time I have got nothing in my head other than planning for this festival to take place at the time it will take place. When you put it in perspective about the number of people that could be seriously hurt, I think it has been whipped up a little bit, but it's a great news story.
"The reality is that, for me, I'm about providing entertainment outdoors until somebody forces me to stop."
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In the same interview, Benn, who called this year's lineup “incredible, with five headliners," acknowledged the lack of female headliners at Electric Picnic 2020, noting an absence of female headlining acts this summer, according to The Irish Times. “We are completely committed to bringing women through all of the line-ups, but there is not a gender-balance ability across the headliners generally at the moment," he said.
Launched in 2004, Electric Picnic is an award-winning festival and one of the biggest music and arts gatherings in Ireland. In 2019, the festival featured headliners The Strokes, Florence + the Machine, Hozier and The 1975, among many others.
Tickets for Electric Picnic 2020 are now sold out. Head to the festival's official website for more information and to view the full lineup.
