Otherkin to rock the Electric Picnic again
The highlight of Electric Picnic 2017 was undoubtedly Otherkin's mesmerising blast of a secret rock performance on the Salty Dog stage and this year they will return to the abandoned ship at Stradbally try to emulate that show.
Fresh from their support role to Guns n Roses at Slane Castle Otherkin played two shows at last year's Electric Picnic, but this year they return to headline the iconic and increasingly popular Salty Dog stage.
Fronted by Beauparc man Luke Reilly, Otherkin have blown the Irish music scene apart with their debut album OK storming the charts and their hard work ethic saw them embark on a marathon tour of Europe last year that introduced them to the world stage.
The turn-of-the-century harbour that provides a bosom to the gloriously decadent Salty Dog once again comes to life - if 'life' is the right word for the kind of riff-raff that frequent this miscreant port.
The strawberry-nosed Captain of the Salty Dog, with his ship wheezing under the weight of several years of rusty service as a stage for homeless musicians, re-aquires the buoys from the pawn shop, collects unclaimed lobster pots from a man in a van near Enniscorthy, and scavenges sails at midnight from a ship yard skip.
The shipwreck is ready - in all her glory - for business. Multitudes of bands brave her scurvy-infested timbers to give raucous music to the sea, and gentle hope to the crew of pickled meat and porter.
The harbour buildings around the ship don't sleep on the job either: hustlers, rustlers, duckers and divers lower the tone with toothy grins, doing anything at all to turn a dime.
Blood spatters from the crude dentist shop, tattooed giants arm-wrestle girls for ale, grime-covered merchants hawk smoked fish and contraband oysters, warty ladies mend fishing nets and croak shanties at each other, and unqualified doctors offer guidance for unsavoury medical complaints.
Indeed a new quarantine area has been set up to isolate those suspected of Cholera, Pox or other less glamorous afflictions, and a newly-introduced custom's border control is in the works.
Along with Otherkin, the other bands taking to the decks of this fallen 40-tonne French vessel are ska-mongers Bionic Rats, Interskalactic and Skatesques, and huge welcome back to the woods for our favourite Cathy Davey.
Then there are the really noisy ones: The eponymous Mick Pyro and Pete Pamf (aka Shogunz of Skank), the bare-chested busking riot that is the Galway Street Club, the Bronx-Cuban Londoners who belt out gypsy ska Dr Schwamp, sea-soaked folksters The Eskies, 70s-style art rock from Five Grand Stereo, the out-of-work lunatics Jobseekerz, urban punk poet Jinx Lennon, the punky stage anarchists Pogueology and the maiden voyage for the high-octane men of Mullingar The Blizzards.
Salty Dog will also welcome State Lights and Keywest to our humble forest, along with the upbeat melodies of Katie Laffan, a burst of sunshine from Track Dogs, the incredible discovery of Modern Love, the Motown-worship of Bronagh Gallagher.
And as if all that isn't enough there will be very, very special visits to the festival's beloved shipwreck by no less than six of the Main Arena acts.