Electric Picnic set to increase their capacity by 15,000 and end partnership with Body&Soul.

Ireland’s biggest festival, Electric Picnic has announced its increasing it’s capacity by a huge 15,000. The increase brings the total capacity to 70,000 which nearly rivals the peak years of Oxegen festival in Punchestown.

Festival promoter Melvin Benn states the increase of the festival’s capacity is due to “unsatiated demand” from the public after its unprecedented selling out times each year. Melvin goes on to say “So many more people wanted to go the event. This will be wonderful for them,
It will go some way if not all the way to meet the demand for people who want to be at the festival.

Along with this increase, Body&Soul will end its partnership with the festival, leaving a considerable hole in the festival. The now independent festival first started in Electric Picnic 16 years ago, it then progressed to its location in Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath, where it continues to run every year. A saddened loss in the Electric Picnic festival will hopefully make way for new ideas and areas that have started just like Body&Soul.

Statement from Body&Soul founder, Avril Stanley:

𝐀 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐚 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞.

Message from Avril Stanley, Founder, Body&Soul Festival

After 10 years as an independent festival, we have decided to step back from our presence and 16-year partnership with Electric Picnic so that we can refocus all of our attention to what the central idea behind Body&Soul is all about: creating an intimate and collaborative festival of the future; one that can embrace social change in a hugely positive way while celebrating an important and ancient Irish feast in our own unique, stand-alone style.

We want to work towards bringing back a fresh energy and perspective to Body&Soul at the Summer Solstice Festival in Ballinlough and for our new winter festival ÉRIU (December 2020).

We are adding a new sense of Purpose to our festival pillars of Sustainability, Wellbeing, Creativity, Culture and Family and we hope to focus all of our efforts in bringing something different to the landscape of Irish festivals into the next ten years.

The Body&Soul Family celebrates all the incredible and unforgettable moments in our first festival home and wishes the Electric Picnic every success in the future.

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