Heading To Electric Picnic? A Major Traffic Update Has Been Issued

It won't be long now before crowds of festival-goers are sipping warm cans of cider in a muddy field in Co. Laois as Electric Picnic rolls in to Stradbally this weekend. While this sounds nothing short of absolute bliss, any experienced Picnic heads will tell you that getting there is the hard part.

Sadly, this year is set to be even worse than usual and AA Roadwatch has today issued a warning that longer delays are expected due to roadworks.

It reads:

'There are major road works on the two main routes leading to Stradbally, on the M7 and M8 which have been causing big delays at key commuter times.

'Festival organisers wish to are urging people to plan their journey well in advance, be prepared for delays and set off as early as possible to avoid the bottle neck which takes place on the run up to the evening rush hour.

'With speeds of just 60km on this stretch of the M7 and the M8 shut for a portion, there can be huge tail backs.

While Elaine O'Sullivan, Deputy Editor of AA Roadwatch added:

“First and foremost, make sure you plan ahead for your journey to Electric Picnic and allow yourself plenty of time to get to the festival site. If you are leaving after work on Friday, keep in mind that evening rush hour delays start to pick up a little earlier and you will see increased volumes of commuter traffic from about 2:30pm onwards so factor that into your plans.

"Festival goers will start to make their way to the site from late morning onwards on Friday, so areas closer to the site will be quite busy. If you are heading to the festival via N7/M7 bear in mind that reduced speed limits are in place both ways between J8 Johnstown and J11 M9 as part of ongoing works and this will slow traffic between these junctions.

"And if you’re coming from Cork, the M8 is completely closed both ways for works between J13 Mitchelstown South and J14 Fermoy North until 8pm Friday evening so you will have to divert via the Old N8. AA Roadwatch will be keeping a very close eye on traffic throughout the weekend and updating our website theAA.ie/Newsroom and our @aaroadwatch Twitter feed so make sure to check your route before setting off.”

Please take care travelling, we can’t control the traffic and delays but we can deliver the music and entertainment!https://t.co/QYZZmRkiXp
— Electric Picnic (@EPfestival) August 30, 2018

Basically if you're heading off tomorrow, make sure you've bagged yourself a half day at work! More information here.