Live Report: Curtisy at Electric Picnic 2025

At Electric Picnic 2025, Curtisy gets things off to a fiery start. Strutting across the stage in a I Love Tallaght t-shirt, the Jobstown rapper is both playful and proud, dragging fans up from the crowd and high-fiving them mid-bar.

In a genre often associated with ego, Curtisy refrains from taking himself too seriously. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t make seriously good art.

His humour lands, but what gives the set real weight is the balance he strikes between comedy and confession. Subject matter includes his own battles with self-worth, and the sense of dissonance that comes from loving a place that also leaves scars. “Where I’m from, you’re told to lower your hopes,” he raps.

Curtisy at Electric Picnic. Photo:
Catherine Gundry-Beck.

Tracks from his Choice Prize–nominated What Was The Question? and 2025 recent mixtape Beauty In The Beast form the spine of the set. ‘Tree Sap’ draws in the crowd with its sly wit, while the explosive ‘Landmine’ shakes them awake with rapid-fire flows that prove he’s one of the finest bar-spitting technicians we’ve got.

The synth-washed melancholy of ‘Last Time’, meanwhile, underlines the cyclical headwreck of falling in and out of bad habits. All the while, the crowd is loving every second of it, firing back lyrics at their creator.

It wouldn’t be a Curtisy show without a guest appearance, and trusty collaborator Loney Chap is quick to hop up and say his piece, fitting seamlessly into a set that has the intimate feel of a house show.

Curtisy is a cult hero, a status he’s achieved not by chasing trends or playing a part, but by standing onstage exactly as he is.