The Electric Picnic line-up is being announced tomorrow, and as usual, speculation is mounting about who we might see at this year's festival.

Below, we take an educated guess at the acts that could well be rolling up to Stradbally from August 31st – September 2nd.

Bear in mind that this is purely speculative – but check back tomorrow morning, when we'll have the full line-up for real!

 
ARCTIC MONKEYS

Alex Turner and co. have just announced a glut of North American dates early in the summer, and they're also headlining the likes of Primavera Sound in late May. That means their long-awaited follow-up to 'AM' should drop around late April/May – and so far, the rest of the summer is open. They're likely to announce some big UK festival shows, so surely a quick trip across the Irish Sea is do-able.

LORDE

This is a name that has cropped up repeatedly in recent months. EP has had at least one huge bona fide pop star on its bill for the last few years (Lana Del Rey being last year's addition), so can we expect the Kiwi star to make her Irish debut at the festival? There's nothing on her tour schedule announced past late July, but we reckon she's a prime contender for EP 2018.


VAMPIRE WEEKEND

We've been waiting forever for Vampire Weekend to release the follow-up to 2013's sublime 'Modern Vampires of the City', and it looks like the wait is finally over. The New Yorkers have announced a glut of festival appearances in Europe, including Leeds and Reading in late August, and will play the UK's End of the Road festival the same weekend as Electric Picnic. Their inclusion at EP could well be on the cards.

ST. VINCENT

Like Vampire Weekend, Annie Clark is also on the End of the Road festival the same weekend as Electric Picnic takes place in Stradbally. She's got a stellar recent album under her belt and is still touring 'Masseducation' throughout this summer. Her dates at Dublin's Olympia Theatre last October went down a treat and she's always a big draw... we're tentatively pencilling her in.

DEPECHE MODE

Last year, Duran Duran proved a surprising addition to the bill, but their Sunday night headline slot went down pretty well. There's usually at least one 'heritage' act on the line-up and while it may be debatable whether Depeche Mode fall into that category (their fans would ardently deny it, surely), they are a band who would appease the older element of the audience while the kidz are off elsewhere. Dave Gahan and co. last played Ireland in November 2017; that's probably just about enough of a sufficient gap to drum up interest in another appearance. This may seem like a pie-in-the-sky prediction in comparison to the others, but they are touring up until late July; will they squeeze another short festival run in in late August?

 

 

We'll have the full Electric Picnic line-up on entertainment.ie tomorrow morning - make sure to check back!