Electric Picnic organisers remain confident this year’s event in Ireland will go ahead next month despite concerns festivals could remain closed due to extended Covid-19 restrictions.
Melvin Benn, managing director of organisers Festival Republic, told RTÉ News at One, that he is “100% fully expecting the Electric Picnic to be going ahead on the basis [that] 100% nobody has told me I won’t be able to”.
However, Ireland still has Covid-19 restrictions in place, which includes limits on the number of people at an outdoor organised event. At present, an outdoor event can welcome up to 200 people, while a venue with a capacity of 5,000 can have 500 people in attendance.
Benn said: “I’m investing, and all of the teams are investing in the effort to try and make sure that the Picnic can happen by presuming that we are going ahead and I’m saying presuming that we are going ahead, because let’s be 100% clear here, nobody’s told me I can’t go ahead.”
Concerns that the festival would not go ahead at full capacity were raised, with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar telling Newstalk when asked about attending the festival: “The pandemic is not over. I wouldn’t go that far just yet. We are still in a pandemic. We haven’t seen this Delta wave peak yet.”
Recently, MCD Productions along with Festival Republic wrote to the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin TD, the Arts Minister Catherine Martin and other government members with a proposal of how events could go ahead later in the year.
Full capacity for the Electric Picnic festival is 70,000 people each day.
Image: Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash
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