Live Report: Babyrat bop on despite the rain at Electric Picnic

After a bit of soundcheck and warm up to an already sizeable crowd for their 4pm Salty Dog slot, Cork quintet Babyrat blew onto the stage out of a huddle fof crashing guitars and thumping drums

Singer Zoe leads them straight into their signature self-proclaimed ‘bitch-pop’ sound, stalking and stomping across the stage in the manner of all great riot gurl frontwomen before her, wearing check shorts and a Sid and Nancy tee.

Crowds on their way into the main arena stop and stare as Babyrat's infectious pop-punk riffs crash out over the campsite route, and a good chunk stick around to hear more.

"Who was here last night?" Zoe asks the crowd, to a raucous cheer.

"Who's hungover?" she shouts, to an bigger cheer.

Their first year at Electric Picnic, this Salty Dog set is the first of three sets Babyrat are scheduled to play across the weekend and even if they are hungover from last night, these guys play like a band with nowhere else they'd rather be.

'Anybody Else But You' gets a sing and clap along from the crowd (helped by the fact it was the warm up song?), and there is a clear and impressive amount of fans for a band that have yet to put out a release.

It's further evidenced by the enthusiastic reaction when Zoe asks who already knows the chorus to 'I'm So Babyrat', and by the amount who do indeed sing along.

Not content to just stand there on stage, these young Cork rockers are chatting and joking the whole time, working the crowd like old hands in their hour-long set.

A sudden rain shower doesn't do much to dislodge the crowd, and as Zoe notes, "we're already wet, we should just embrace it!"

She thanks the crowd as they gear up fot their last track: "If you just came for Bambino thats cool, if you came in out of the rain thats cool too, we've been Babyrat and so have you!"

Don't worry if you missed this set, Babyrat are set to play Fish Town on Saturday at 6:30pm, and at Rockshore Live on Sunday afternoon, 3:15pm.

You can also catch a chat with the band at the Hot Press Chat Room in the Mindfield Arena on Saturday at 1.30pm.

You can find all of the Hot Press coverage from the entire Electric Picnic 2026 weekend right here.