If you've been to Electric Picnic at any point over the last 16 years, you'll be aware that the Body & Soul area is very much the focus point of the festival for many people.
The little oasis of calm is situated in the middle of the arena and provides a place to chill out and watch some music in a relaxed setting. You could grab a drink or some food at one of the independent stalls/cafes, sit around the campfire and even get into a hot tub, if you wanted to.
The Body & Soul area even spawned its own festival, which has run at Ballinlough House for the last decade - and now, after ten years as a standalone event, organisers have announced that they are ending their partnership with Electric Picnic.
Founder Avril Stanley released a statement as follows:
"After 10 years as an independent festival, we have decided to step back from our presence and 16-year partnership with Electric Picnic so that we can refocus all of our attention to what the central idea behind Body&Soul is all about: creating an intimate and collaborative festival of the future; one that can embrace social change in a hugely positive way while celebrating an important and ancient Irish feast in our own unique, stand-alone style.
We want to work towards bringing back a fresh energy and perspective to Body&Soul at the Summer Solstice Festival in Ballinlough and for our new winter festival ÉRIU (December 2020).
We are adding a new sense of Purpose to our festival pillars of Sustainability, Wellbeing, Creativity, Culture and Family and we hope to focus all of our efforts in bringing something different to the landscape of Irish festivals into the next ten years.
The Body&Soul Family celebrates all of the incredible and unforgettable moments in our first festival home and wishes the Electric Picnic every success in the future."
It is not yet known whether Electric Picnic will replace the Body & Soul area with a similar vibe, but watch this space for more on this story as we get it.
