They're thanking the community of Stradbally and Laois for their "huge ongoing support during this difficult time".
Electric Picnic organisers are reviewing their options after being refused a licence to run this year's event.
Festival Republic say they're disappointed by Laois County Council's decision, considering only fully vaccinated or people who've recently recovered from covid would be allowed onsite in Stradbally next month.
Gutted to hear electric picnic has been cancelled was looking forward to seeing my Irish ☘️ brothers n sisters and my cousin Guinness
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) August 5, 2021
They're now calling on the government to interrupt their summer recess and immediately issue reopening guidelines, with a view to lifting all restrictions on music and entertainment by September 1st.
Assistant Editor of Hot Press magazine Stuart Clark has been speaking to Midlands 103's Ellen Butler about the latest developments, including possible legal action from the EP organisers, and the anger within the music industry:
See the full statement from Electric Picnic below:
Together with all the fans of Electric Picnic we are extremely disappointed that Laois County Council have refused a licence for this year’s festival scheduled to take place 24th - 26th September 2021. See LCC statement HERE
This is despite our proposal that everyone attending the event, including ticket holders, staff and artists, would have to be fully vaccinated and registered in advance for Department of Health contact tracing.
To see Scotland, a country with a similar population and virtually identical vaccine rollout and uptake as our own, only announce on Tuesday that they were easing restrictions and allowing events such as TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow go ahead in September makes this decision even more difficult to accept. Click Link HERE
This is a huge blow and set back to our entire sector, which was mandated to close on the 12th March 2020 (over 500 days ago) and such a decision now means the further loss of employment for over 3,000 people, who had clung to the hope that Electric Picnic would bring an end to their period of hardship.
We now call upon all members of government to interrupt their summer recess and immediately issue reopening guidelines, as we have being calling for, with a reopening date for the sector of the 16th August on a phased basis, building to the implementation of no restrictions from 1st September 2021 onwards.
We wish to thank all the fans for their patience and the community of Stradbally and the people of Laois for their huge ongoing support during this difficult time.
We will now review our options and be in contact directly with all ticket holders over the next week.
The Electric Picnic Team."
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