Electric Picnic has just announced that 10 new acts, including LGBTQ+ performers CMAT, Bambie Thug and Loreen, will be joining the lineup for this August’s sold-out festival.
CMAT, an Irish singer-songwriter from Meath, released her debut album If My Wife New I’d Be Dead in 2022 to widespread acclaim, earning the album a top spot on the Irish Albums Charts as well as the Choice Music Prize for Album of the Year. Described by fans as a “bisexual icon”, she stunned Electric Picnic fans during her 2022 festival set, and has a steady fanbase amongst Ireland’s LGBTQ+ community. In an interview with NME, CMAT once claimed: “I’m making music for the girls and the gays, that’s it.”
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The girls and the gays will also be thrilled to hear that Eurovision superstars and LGBTQ+ icons Bambie Thug and Loreen will also be joining the lineup for Electric Picnic 2024.
The first and only woman to ever win the Eurovision Song Contest twice, Loreen, who came out as bisexual in 2012, will make her Electric Picnic debut this year.
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Bambie Thug will also make their Electric Picnic debut in August, after this year earning Ireland its highest Eurovision placement since 2000. Bambie made history as the country’s first openly non-binary entry to the song contest, performing ‘Doomsday Blues’, a track audiences can surely expect to hear on their Electric Picnic setlist.
This year’s Eurovision was boycotted widely as a result of Israel’s participation. Fans and artists alike called on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to expel the nation from the competition, due to the ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have killed over 38,000 people since October 7.
Although Bambie Thug did not participate in the Eurovision boycott, they have been vocal about their support for Palestine. In the semi-finals of the contest, they attempted to wear stage make-up calling for a ceasefire in Ogham writing, but the EBU forced them to remove the messages. Furthermore, Bambie Thug did not participate in a dress rehearsal after experiencing a tense situation with the Israeli broadcaster KAN backstage.
After the final of the show had concluded, they condemned the EBU, saying: “The EBU is not what the Eurovision is. F**k the EBU, I don’t even care anymore. F**k them.”
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Unsigned LGBTQ+ artists Bobbi Arlo, a Glasgow-based hyper-pop artist from Dublin, and Chubby Cat, a Belfast-based electro-pop artist from Cork, will also perform sets at this year’s Electric Picnic as part of the Coke Studio’s line-up of acts. Mother is also bringing queer club culture to the festival, with the return of its After Dark dance party in the woods.
Tickets for Electric Picnic 2024 have been sold out for weeks, with 75,000 people expected to flood Stradbally Estate from August 16 to 18 for an unbelievable weekend. The lineup of performers includes Calvin Harris, Kylie Minogue and Noah Kahan, alongside newly added acts CMAT, Bambie Thug, Loreen, Lankum, The Stranglers, Villagers, Blindboy, daydreamers, Cardinals and Zimmer90.
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