Electric Picnic won’t go ahead this year as Laois County Council refuse to grant licence

They said that the decision has been made "following the most up to date public health advice".

It's not looking good for Electric Picnic as it will not be going ahead later this year, with Laois County Council refusing to grant a licence. Laois County Council said in a statement to Laois Today on Wednesday that the decision has been made "following the most up to date public health advice". “Laois County Council has today made the decision to refuse a licence to hold the 2021 Electric Picnic event at Stradbally, Co Laois," they said. “The decision has been made following the most up to date public health advice made available to the Council from the HSE. “Furthermore, it is noted that under current government measures for the management of Covid-19, events of this nature are restricted to an attendance of 500 people only.” The festival had been scheduled to take place in late September but it now looks like it won't be able to go ahead after months of speculation on whether it would be permitted to run as usual this year. It comes as on Tuesday MCD Productions called for Electric Picnic to be allowed to go ahead exclusively for vaccinated people. The Irish promotion company shared twelve reasons why they believe the festival should be permitted as the live music sector in Ireland has now been closed for over 500 days. Last week the festival organisers, MCD and Festival Republic, wrote to the Taoiseach and other members of Government to propose the list of advanced safety measures which would allow the event to take place. This news comes as Managing Director of Festival Republic, which runs the Electric Picnic festival, Melvin Benn, said on Monday that the festival in Stradbally in Laois will be going ahead this year. Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Benn said he is "100% fully expecting the Electric Picnic to be going ahead on the basis (that) 100% nobody has told me I won't be able to". "I'm investing, and all of the teams are investing in the effort to try and make sure that the Picnic can happen by presuming that we are going ahead and I'm saying presuming that we are going ahead, because let's be 100% clear here, nobody's told me I can't go ahead," he said.