A great picnic weekend

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, played a blinder in The Little Big Tent on Saturday. The English duo had no difficulty in filling the tent as their hip hop beats belted out to an overflowing audience, who would have liked them to continue for a further couple of hours. Scroobius Pip aka David Peter Meads rallied the audience, as he declared “ I’m gonna run for president”. It was a great show.

The Japanese Popstars shortly followed at 8:30, and really lived up to their name as best live act award winners at the Irish Dance Music Awards in 2010. The lads from Derry always provide a good show, and it was no different at the picnic.

The bluesy rock strains of The Riptide Movement set Sunday off to a great start. Crowds flocked to the Cosby tent to hear Malachy Tuohy’s vocals put the energy back into the campground. Land lovers took to the stage just after, although the crowd dwindled a little bit. They’re interesting mix of mellow, slow rock, with more upbeat numbers inserted in between. It was diverse, but this could alienate some audience members. Friday’s blue skies had paled to grey over the weekend, but the rain held off throughout, and the sun reappeared on Sunday afternoon. The shades went on and the legs came out.

Over at the Body and Soul arena, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra played with vigour to an audience that ranged from 5 – 50 year olds. The orchestra’s conductor David Brophy led the musicians through a variety of numbers from Starsky and Hutch to Beethoven’s 1st Movement of the 5th Symphony, also well known for it’s appearance in A Clockwork Orange. The suits and welly-boots also looked great onstage.

Moving around the grounds, we came across the Oxjam sessions at the Oxfam tent. This was an open mic event, and we were lucky to catch Shane Farrell from Caruso join an audience member for an acoustic version of The Smith’s ‘Panic’. This was a small tent with a big draw.

Comedy at the Picnic was second to none as Karl Spain, Joe Rooney, Phill Jupitus and many others, bought their best game. Gerry McBride gave us a hilarious yet insightful look into how he goes about making love in his car. He had the audience in stitches. It was well worth a visit, although finding a seat in the packed tent was difficult. Dead Cat Bounce proved a big hit when they sang a rendition of ‘Good Touch – Bad Touch’. They even pulled one unsuspecting audience member onstage. Later, they joined us for an interview at the Hot Press tent.

Fat Freddy’s Drop brought the Kiwi flavour to Stradbally, with their Dub-reggae sounds filling the Electronic Arena. They were on top form, on Sunday. Perhaps they would have been better positioned on the main stage, instead of the slightly disappointing Denis Alcapone and the Dubcats, whose flavour of reggae came across a little stale.

The Leviathan tent gave up all sorts of treats. Poetry readings, writing workshops, Comedy Caberet and a Slam Jam to name but a few. One of the Leviathan highlights had to go to Kate Tempest and The Sound of Rum. The dynamic young rapper joined Archie Marsh and Ferry Lawson in 2008 to create the energetic jazzy trio that had everybody dancing on their stools. Kate’s on stage attitude and charisma spilled out onto the crowd, and the tent came alive on Sunday night. The band has been touring extensively throughout London, and all we can say is watch this space!

Claire Nicolson and Selena Godden aka The Book Club Boutique were well worth waiting for. The combination of clever lyrics, comedy lines and the Blues rhythms were all evident and thrilling in equal parts.

The mist that had started to descend on the festival grounds decided to break into an all out down pour, but that did not put people off standing in front of the stage to watch Lucent Dossier, whose combination of acrobatics, tight choreography, fire displays, belly dancers, and trapeze artists made this show worth getting soaked for. The choreography was phenomenal, as was the production. There were artists swinging from the ceiling while fire poi twirled around them.

Closing out the night were musical chiefs Massive Attack on the main stage. The rain was thoroughly lashing at this point, but nobody seemed to care as the duo provided us with tunes both old and new. A fantastic finale to a fantastic weekend.