Festival season 2022: Sea Sessions and Electric Picnic will return in all their glory this year

The global festival scene has essentially been non-existent since the onset of the pandemic but 2022 marks a long-anticipated return to live gigs and Sea Sessions aims to please with their offering.  

Set to return to Bundoran this June, the festival will welcome a number of big acts to the stage including Tinie Tempah, Kodaline, Basement Jaxx, The Academic, Fia Moon, Joel Corry, Wyvern Lingo and Gemmy Dunleavy amongst others. Three-day camping tickets start at just under €130 and go on sale tomorrow morning at 9 am. 

Tomorrow is also a big day for Electric Picnic fans, when organisers will announce the headline acts for this year’s event. Set to return as full-scale festivals for the first time in three years, organisers have been busy putting in work behind the scenes and will finally reveal the first round of acts for EP 2022. 

Taking to social media last week to update the public on what’s to come this year, the team confirmed that full details will be announced on March 10 with tickets going on sale the next day (Friday) at 11 am. “After two very long years, we’re delighted to finally say that we’ll be announcing the Electric Picnic 2022 line up next Thursday 10th March, with tickets going on sale the following morning, 11th March at 11 am!,” they wrote on Instagram. 

RTÉ 2FM also screened a “very special Picnic documentary” on YouTube over the weekend in anticipation of the announcement. Telling the story of the past two years that the festival didn’t happen, the short doc showed “how a community of festival makers and musicians came together to capture a piece of the picnic”. 

There was also festival news over in the UK where Latitude organisers revealed the headliners for this year’s lineup. 

Due to take place in Henham Park in Suffolk in late July, the event will see a slew of big names take to the stage including the likes of Lewis Capaldi, Foals and Russell Howard who were amongst the first round of acts announced for the show. Maggie Rogers, Little Simz and James Arthur will also make an appearance throughout the four-day festival which combines the best of local food, music and comedy. 

Veteran Latitude performers, Snow Patrol, celebrated the news on social media, writing that they are “so delighted” at the prospect of returning to the stage after two years of disappointment. “We are so delighted to be back playing Latitude Festival once again. We headlined the very first one (2006!) and we’re so honoured to be asked to headline once again. It’s one of the best festivals in the UK and we can’t wait. Lots of love.”

Foals have also headlined the festival before, with the band attributing that performance to helping them realise their full potential. “It’s especially significant to us as our first-ever festival headline set was at Latitude almost 10 years ago and we remember the rush of that show like it’s today; it felt like being handed the controls to a jumbo jet at 35,000 feet… Latitude helped us and many other great UK bands realise their potential,” they said in a video shared on social media last night.

“We couldn’t be happier to come back on the Saturday night to remind everyone and ourselves how powerful and euphoric live music can be.”

Other acts confirmed for the 2022 festival range from Snow Patrol to Freya Ridings, Example, Fontaines D.C. and American singer Phoebe Bridgers, who may even bring her boyfriend Paul Mescal (and his much-talked-about GAA shorts) along for the festivities too.