First Acts Announced for This Year's Electric Picnic

With the sun beating down on Dublin for much of the past week, it's almost as if the weather gods are already gearing up for this summer's fast-approaching festival season. Or maybe we're just going to get (another) one of those weird 'Indian summers in reverse', where March, April and May are nicer than they should be and then it pisses rain for the next three months solid. Who knows? But I digress...

Ragged Words was out to lunch washing its hair at the dentist away from a computer when news broke yesterday afternoon of the first batch of acts to be confirmed for this year's Electric Picnic music and arts festival. We've now got a full initial breakdown for you below, in case you were likewise engaged this time yesterday (or have just been hiding under a rock for the past 24 hours).

Set to take place from Friday, August 31 to Sunday, September 2 at its usual home of Stradbally Hall in Co. Laois, tickets for the summer-ending weekender's ninth edition went on sale this morning priced €230 for regular weekend and family camping passes. A Sunday day ticket will set you back €99.50, and if you're planning on rocking up in a campervan it will cost you an extra €60. Ticketmaster have an installment option available for full weekend ticket-buyers.

So, what sort of musical bang can punters expect for their buck this year? Well, without further ado, the lineup of artists announced so far looks like this:

THE CURE // SIGUR RÓS // ELBOW // GRIZZLY BEAR // ORBITAL // CHRISTY MOORE // THE ROOTS // HOT CHIP // GLEN HANSARD // THE XX // METRONOMY // THE HORRORS // AZEALIA BANKS // ROOTS MANUVA // BELL X1 // STAFF BENDA BILILI // MILAGRES // ED SHEERAN // ALABAMA SHAKES // CRANES // LITTLE ROY // JOHN DIGWEED // LAND LOVERS // BAXTER DURY // JONATHAN WILSON // SOLAR BEARS // FATOUMATA DIAWARA // WILLIS EARL BEAL // LANTERNS ON THE LAKE

As well as that lot – and per entertainment.ie's update a little earlier – it's now been confirmed that THE KILLERS (sic.!), BAT FOR LASHES and TINDERSTICKS will also be making the trip to Stradbally. Of course, this is just the initial press release, so we can expect a whole rake of fresh additions to be announced over the coming months. We will of course endeavour to keep you posted...

Priding itself on being "a liquorice allsorts of festivals", Electric Picnic offers much more than just quality live music: as well as its usual array of themed areas (Mindfield, Body & Soul, Global Green etc. - some of which are effectively 'festivals-within-a-festival'), there will also be a whole host of other distractions on offer, including a comedy tent, food village, boutique and family camping areas, and even the return of Fossett's Circus.

The lineup announcement comes on the back of this week's IMRO Live Music Venue of The Year Awards, which saw The Picnic crowned Music Festival of The Year for 2011. For a full, comprehensive lowdown on this year's event, visit www.electricpicnic.ie and follow EP on Facebook and/or Twitter (#electricpicnic).

So, what do you make of that lineup?

Will you be heading along come the end of August?

Will there be much of a demographic shift this year amongst festival-goers, with the more teen-oriented Oxegen taking a year off?

Is there a slight element of Electric Picnic's loss being Forbidden Fruit's gain this summer?

Will there be more than one Pieminister stall this time?

Has poor ol' Ed Sheeran stopped trending yet?!?

We've already got our tent and wellies airing out in the back garden - apart from anything else, we're not going to pass up the opportunity to finally cross The Cure off our must-see-before-we-die list. We'll also be looking forward to hearing new material from The xx, Hot Chip, Sigur Rós and Grizzly Bear. And we're very excited to see how Willis Earl Beal gets on in front of a festival crowd. Roll on late August!

Now, for the day that's in it...