Ahead of 80,000 people returning to Stradbally for Ireland’s biggest festival – Electric Picnic – here are some Irish bands you should see if you’re down there.
This list features 10 acts from Ireland playing EP this year who I would personally recommend to almost anyone going to the festival this year so it’s a wide-range of music, and maybe you haven’t heard any new music in a while and want to heck out something new when you are there? This is your opportunity to see something great.
1.
For Those I Love
Dave Balfe’s music is as intimate as it is vital.
For the last six or so years, Dave Balfe has been turning his personal pain and private thoughts into punk-spiked electronic widescreen productions.
A second album, Carving The Stone, wasa just released, and taking a wider aim at topics which affect the working-class Dublin man technofeudalism, capitalism, the rise of the far-right, and trying to keep a foothold in Dublin city’s ravaged soul.
Live, the album will be brought to stage with surveillance cameras and Balfe as the lone performer, but armed with spectral club-ready evocative songs that are a vehicle for Balfe’s rallying articulations.
Plays EP: Saturday 30th August – Three Music Stage – 7:30pm
2.
Just Mustard
The Dundalk rock band on same international label as Fontaines D.C.
Just Mustard are a rock band whose music resides also in the worlds of shoegaze and industrial rock sounds, making their particular brand of heavenly ascending guitar music sound like it was made in a machinery-heavy factory.
The band’s long-awaited third album WE WERE JUST HERE, will be released on October 17th and Electric Picnic will be your first opportunity to hear any of it live.
Plays EP: Saturday 30th August – Electric Arena – 3:15pm
3.
Khakikid
Ireland’s viral pop-alt rapper.
Khakikid has been doing great things in Irish music since 2019, so his callup for a big slot at the 12,000 cap Electric Arena stage this weekend is a milestone moment for the Crumlin artist, and a declaration of confidence in his ability to bring a proper show to the festival.
Khakikid is one of those bubblin’ under artists who goes viral on the regular, most recently with his earworm hit ‘Date Nite’, that added him 100,000 new online followers in just four months.
Hop on board the Khakikid train, you just don’t know where it’ll take you.
Plays EP: Saturday August 30th – Electric Arena – 4:30pm
4.
Biig Piig
The Irish artist with roots in Spain and London spins fun alt pop hits.
Whether she’s making slinky bangers, ASMR electronic club or laid-back R&B, Biig Piig’s pop sensibilities always shine through as heard on 11:11, the Cork-born artist’s long-awaited debut album released this January.
With cinematic production, bilingual lyricism and bold R&B/pop crossover sounds, Biig Piig is an endearing addition to any festival bill.
Plays EP: Sunday August 31st – Electric Arena – 3:15pm
5.
Orla Gartland
Irish singer-songwriter with big pop chops.
Orla Gartland is such an accomplished songwriter that she won an Ivor Novello Award earlier this year, confirming what many of us already knew – that few artists – Irish or no – have the confessional songwriting and earworm pop sensilbities that make Orla such a magnetising artist and that extends to her live presence.
She’s been out there on Youtube and on stages for years honing her craft and making it whole, picking up new audiences year on year.
Plays EP: Sunday August 31st – Three Music Stage. – 5:30pm
6.
DUG
Ireland-based American folk duo on the rise.
DUG is the duo of Californian musician Johnny Pickett and Scottish-American songwriter Lorkin O’Reilly
I featured their breakthrough song ‘Jubilee’ earlier last year and the band arrive at a debut album Have At It! on September 19th releasing on the newly revived Irish label Claddagh Records.
DUG’s Appalachian folk Americana causes festival crowds to perform spontaneous hoedowns – something I saw occur at Another Love Story this past weekend.
Plays EP: Friday August 29th – Salty Dog – 5:30pm
7.
I Dreamed I Dream
Self-described Cork “sean-nós noise-makers”
The Cork ‘experimental no-wave bitch-punk’ five-piece marked themselves as ones to watch with their debut EP Why Say a Lot? in 2023 and its 2025 followup BOYOPOISONING both which feature shoegaze, sean-nós-style vocals, spikey noise-rock and Fight Like Apes-style synth pop.
Plays EP: Friday August 29th – Salty Dog – 10:00pm
8.
Madra Salach
A Dublin six-piece band who play folk like a rock band.
Madra Salach’s origins in the Dublin indie scene are unsurprising (two of the members are involved in Fizzy Orange), but it’s worth noting that their embrace of folk and trad songs wouldn’t have been likely without the recent resurgence and appreciation of the genre in Ireland’s young population in the past few years.
Madra Salah are flying the flag for The Pogues-esque rock and folk music that has turned so many heads over the years.
Plays EP:
Saturday August 30th – Spike Island – 5:35pm
Saturday August 30th – Brutropolis Metro – 9:40pm
Sunday August 31st – Artlot – 4pm
9.
Lullahush
The Athens-based Irish producer Daniel McIntyre’s latest set of releases pondered how to bring Irish trad and electronic music together.
The album ithaca released through Future Classic, home to records from Flume, Chet Faker and Sophie previously, “explores how a holistic marriage of traditional Irish music and contemporary electronica can express a unique perspective on modern Irish identity.”
Live, McIntyre and band are shifting the sands of that marriage with this very digitally-sculpted music performed in a traditonal way, further blurring the lines of moderinity and tradition.
Sunday August 31st – Brutropolis Metro – 9:40pm
10.
Junior Brother
The loveable Kerry freak folk artist.
The Kerry folk artist has been making elemental music to tempt the music-minded astray since 2016, and his latest album The End, out September 5th, amps up the eerieness, and rips open a portal to folklorian pastures old and new with a collection of singular transportive folk songs.
Go down to the woods and get lost on Sunday in Stradbally with Ronan Kealy and band.
Plays EP: Sunday August 31st – Fishtown Sideshow Circus Stage – 8pm
All of our Electric Picnic coverage.
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, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
