PICNIC IS HERE: Niall Bressie Talks Mental Health and The Blizzards Reunion

Talking about The Blizzards’ reunion he tells me: “The reality was that we stopped playing cause we weren’t enjoying it, as much as some people find that hard to understand. If you want to be recording or playing gigs or touring or whatever, you have to enjoy what you’re doing. I know it might seem like it must be great craic being in a band but the reality is that once you’re trying to make a career and feed kids and pay a mortgage, it all becomes very difficult. And we always said that if it got to that stage we’d be honest with each other, and we were. But because we were honest, it always left the door open and we said that when the hunger comes back and we want to do it for the right reasons and we want to be creative again, we’ll do it. And it came back naturally, it wasn’t forced. I think that last time we were putting far too much pressure on ourselves and that’s why we stopped enjoying it.”

Niall reinforces the urgent need for action on mental health issues and opens up about the panel discussion he’ll be having on the Sunday evening. “I’d surprised if there was a festival anywhere else in the world that is dedicating a stage to mental health and wellbeing. This is huge because we’re trying to normalise the conversation around mental health and talk about it in an everyday way like we’d talk about physical health. And by doing that we reduce the stigma and make people who are struggling feel like it’s OK to get help. That was one of our goals. And Electric Picnic being a festival of arts and culture, we felt like this was a good place to start. It’s not going to be everyone’s thing, but it’s a good place to start. And to get our Minister for Health to come to a festival and to sit on the panel to talk about mental health, if you told me that three years ago, I would’ve fallen down and fainted laughing at you. That’s progress. And it’s not going to be all talking about how horrendous our services are or how bad things have gotten, it’s going to be about, right, what the fuck are we going to do here lads because waiting is no longer an option anymore. And as much as the government have a responsibility here, people have a responsibility to try and help themselves and figure out the best way forward. That’s how I really feel about it.”

The Blizzards play the Jerry Fish Electric Slideshow on Sunday at 11PM.
Niall Bressie's discussion on mental health will be held in the A Lust for Life stage located in the Theatre tent on Sunday at 7PM.