Just as Electric Picnic revellers have begun to recover from their Stradbally stay, next year’s event is already sold out, with tickets having gone on general sale on Wednesday. Those who trudged through the mud on Monday and packed up their rain-soaked tents may well be hoping to get one more year out of their equipment. But is there a different option? Some will be asking whether the 'fancy camping' is worth it for the jewel in Ireland’s festival calendar.
As a man who had a very comfortable few days in Stradbally, I can answer that question: yes, yes, a million times yes. Up until this year, I had either slogged it out in the battle royal for space that was the general campsites on Friday morning or bussed it in and out from my partner’s childhood home in Portlaoise. But when the idea was floated by friends to try 'fancy camping', we thought "why not?".
'Fancy camping', organised by Pink Moon, allows punters arrive to an already pitched tent in a specific site complete with private toilet and shower blocks. Different sites offer different tent sizes and facilities but the benefits make going back to traditional camping hard to imagine. There's no battle for space for your tent and the main arena is around 30 seconds away.
There's no fiddling with pegs or worrying about if the tent will blow away with a strong gust. No worries about locating the tent when stumbling from the Salty Dog secret set at 2am. No worries about waterlogging if the weather takes a turn.
No worr.