The Salty Dog has announced its shipwrecked pirate shantytown lineup for this year’s sold out Electric Picnic in Stradbally.
Lined up are:
- Aslan
- Sexytadhg
- Mik Pyro
- My Bad Sister
- Dug
- The Foreign Locals
- Fynches
- These Charming Men
- Tebi Rex
- Paddy Hanna
- Blood Donor
- Square Pegs
- Liam O’Connor
- Cronins
- Salty Dog No Stars
- Fizzy Orange
- The Circus Ponies
- Winemom
- The Wednesday Gang
- Really Good Time
- I Dreamed, I Dream
- The Molgoggers
- Blessed
- Monsieur Pompier
- The Cacks
- And a Secret Surprise
Also announced from EP:
- ArtLot stage lineup announced for Electric Picnic
- Electric Picnic add Smirnoff dance stage and Trenchtown lineups
- Fishtown announced for Electric Picnic
- Electric Picnic add 11 acts including Chic, Inhaler, Jazzy, David Gray…
- Rave In The Woods lineup announced for Electric Picnic
- Mother After Dark lineup added to Electric Picnic
- An Chollchoill
- Theatre Of Food
- Transmission
- The Hazelwood
“Any rumours relating to secret gigs on the Salty Dog are true-ish” gurgles the strawberry-nosed Captain of the Picnic’s favourite shipwreck, a forlorn and decrepit vessel that hasn’t seen seawater in a decade and a half.
The passing of time has made little difference to the gradual decomposition of this infamous trawler into the forest bed. The battered deck of the Salty Dog, wheezing under the strain of several years of neglect, invaded by rot and rust, will be disguised with a lick of paint the day before the festival, and presented with grimy smiles by its bloodshot-eyed crew.
Troubadours – press-ganged, poorly paid, drenched in bootleg rum, and barked at by the stump-toothed captain for leaving guitar picks lying around – find themselves wondering how they became part of the stench.
Why? Because the Salty Dog is where your parents never wanted you to end up, and that’s why you are all there. And so are your parents.
The dockside holds in the collective belly of its patrons, and the turn-of-the-century harbour that provides a bosom for the decadent to weep into, will once again come to life – if ‘life’ is the right word for the kind of riff-raff that frequent this miscreant port. The scurvy-riddled crew barter for washed up buoys and stolen lobster pots with a man in a van near New Ross in the dead of night.
Hustlers, rustlers, duckers and divers move like critters around the port, doing anything to turn a dime – blood spatters from the local surgeon, tattooed giants arm-wrestle girls for ale, filth-covered merchants hawk smoked fish and green-looking oysters, warty ladies mend fishing nets and croak shanties at each other, and unqualified doctors offer guidance for unsavoury medical complaints.
And People! Thursday night is on. Anyone who stays in their tents, campervans, or back at their comfortable homes is a fool.
Salty Dog – life at the bottom of the barrel.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
