Live Report: All Ireland winners, Amble, and Fontaines D.C. close out an unforgettable Electric Picnic 2026

Surprise gig announcements, All Ireland Champions and Irish greats old and new closed out another brilliant (and wet) edition of Electric Picnic in Stradbally Hall.

The headline-grabbing moment of the day will be Fontaines D.C. revealing a 2027 Slane Castle show after their massive closing set, but they weren't the only acts springing surprises at the main stage. In fact, their Castlebar-native bassist Conor Deegan III was there earlier on, joining the Mayo All-Ireland champions, who were invited by the Saw Doctors to sing 'Green and Red of Mayo.'

The music itself also gave plenty to write home about. Mick Flannery started Sunday's main stage alone at the piano, and by the end of 'Gone To Heaven'. The set built steadily from there, saxophonist Matthew Berrill adding ache to the arrangements, before Flannery's brothers crashed the stage for 'Take It On The Chin', one of them mooning the crowd on the way off. Susan O'Neill joined in to close things out on 'Trouble' and 'Baby Talk',  trumpet in hand, bringing additional depth and soul to an already excellent performance.

Irish alternative-folk darlings Madra Salach, announced as support acts for Fontaines' Slane gig, brought their bite to Rankin's Wood. Drawing crowds through their distinct dark and droning approach to folk, they tore into songs like 'Tunnel Tigers' and the housing crisis-aimed 'Cranes,' while frontman Paul Banks settled into the chatty, self-deprecating patter that's become part of the act.

Dónal Lunny, Máirtín O'Connor and Zoë Conway at Electric Picnic on August 30, 2026. Copyright Saoirse McAllorum/hotpress.com

Dónal Lunny, Máirtín O'Connor and Zoë Conway reunited at the Croí stage for their first gig together in two years, riding a wave of renewed interest in the Planxty legend off the back of the recent In Time  documentary. It was a history lesson in proper trad, as the trio moved through delightful reels picked up from Shetland fiddlers into polkas like 'Little Diamond,' a tune tied to the late Séamus Begley, with Lunny switching between bouzouki and guitar. You wouldn't have guessed they'd been apart two years, the chemistry and the fingerpicking were both in full flow.

Van Morrison finally played his first Electric Picnic, on a bill otherwise stacked with a younger generation of Irish stars. True to recent form, he spent much of the main stage set handing the mic to his heroes rather than himself, leaning hard on covers of old-school blues and R&B from the likes of B.B. King and Marie Adams. The rain didn't let up, but neither did his excellent band, who said goodbye as they always do by jamming out to the iconic rocker 'Gloria'.

Geese, fresh off one of last year's most talked about records, skipped the Reading and Leeds meme-collage entrance and just got straight into it, opening with the ferocious title track off Getting Killed. What stood out is how heavy they could be, though  songs like 'Husbands' and 'Cobra' brought out the band's stranger, more cathartic side and had the crowd singing along. At one point, enigmatic frontman Cameron Winter hand-speakered some Aslan halfway through '2212', while drummer Max Bassin tore through a few standout can-bashing solos, proving they can jam as hard as they can meme. For some, Geese might feel like an inside joke need to be in on to appreciate, but on stage they're just an excellent rock band, full stop.

Geese at Electric Picnic / copyright Patrik Meier / hotpress

The former schoolteachers and scientists that make up Amble have come a long way from Leitrim, Sligo and Longford, becoming one of Ireland's most successful acts to emerge in the last couple of years. The folk trio drew one of the weekend's largest crowds at the main stage. The core trio of Robbie Cunningham, Oisín McCaffrey, and Ross McNerney provide their signature driving acoustic rhythm and close vocal harmonies, while the expanded band adds strings, brass, percussion and keys, giving the song considerably more breadth than its stripped-back foundations might suggest.There's something deliberately earthy about their sound - even when the production gets polished, it never feels detached from the fields, towns and family stories at the centre of their songs.

Fontaines D.C. closed out the main stage and treated it like a victory lap through their catalogue, opening with "Boys In The Better Land" before working through Skinty Fia and teasing new tracks from the upcoming Dopamine Chamber. It was a commanding performance, worthy of the best band in the world title that many have been branding them with for a while now. There were also some touching tributes paid to their late manager Trevor Dietz. Grian Chatten held up his fist to the camera with "TREV" tattooed across his knuckles, and guitarist Conor Curley lay his Stratocaster on the ground for the camera to reveal he had 'Trevor Forever' taped to its sides. They closed with 'Starburster' and then dropped the big news: a Slane Castle headline show next year, which will put them alongside Thin Lizzy and U2 as the only Irish acts to top that bill.

It was a blockbuster end to another fantastic edition of Electric Picnic. Irish acts have always had a big presence at the festival, but this year felt different. With the likes of Fontaines, CMAT and Amble taking up prime main stage slots, and countless other homegrown artists impressing across the festival, it made for one of the more memorable weekends EP has had in recent memory.

Fontaines D.C. at Electric Picnic on August 30, 2026. Copyright Liam Murphy/hotpress.com