Imagine having 55,000 revellers party their days and nights away on your land over the course of a weekend – it surely would be no picnic.
Despite the financial compensations of hosting the Electric Picnic, large-scale sheep farmer Thomas Cosby of Stradbally Hall in Laois, admits the compaction of the site is a concern for him.
However, his accountant is happy. And he is philosophical. “You can’t have an omelette without breaking eggs,” he explained.
You can’t not get compaction in this situation, said Cosby who lives at Stradbally Hall with his wife Gesa and two children, Richard (6) and Charlotte (5.)
Cosby farms approximately 520ac including around 220ac of forestry. He keeps around 670 head of sheep, 520 lambing ewes with a scanning rate last season of 2.1 lambs/ewe, and 150 ewe lambs (kept for replacements). Cosby Hall also has a horse-riding school, with 35 horses and ponies.
He has opted for the Lleyn breed for its hardiness. “I bring in the singles and the multiples, and doubles stay out,” he said. He has 107 triplets; 20 sets of quads; two quins; and one set of sextuplets.
The flock is moved to two rented farms from July 24 and is returned about ten days after the music and arts festival. He doesn’t find the disruption too difficult.
“I can cull any ewe I want to get rid of. Anything vaguely approaching factory weight is gone.”
The mammoth site clean-up takes place for three weeks after the event and again in February when a lot of leaves are dropping from hedges.
Last year the charity The Jacket Off Your Back posted a video online of the extent of the clean-up. It showed a field full of abandoned tents surrounded by litter in one of the festival’s campsites.
Omg the smell of piss, drink and muck is unreal, it looks like Idomeni without the refugees
Posted by The Jacket Off Your Back on Monday, September 5, 2016
Festival goers had been asked by two charities, The Jacket Off Your Back and Tents for Calais, to leave their tents behind after their Stradbally stay.
Cosby said he doesn’t have any shortage of places to spend the money earned from hosting the Electric Picnic. The roof of the house was one of his first big projects and the property is “a big black hole,” he said.
Money has been invested in the farm through sheds and fencing, and the gardens have also benefited. Some road construction is paid for by the concert promoters and he has also done some.
He has agreed to continue hosting the festival for another ten years and, until the contract ends, he is prepared to take a relaxed approach to the sell-out event and enjoy a front-row seat from the big house.
“Ultimately I can plough up all the land and reseed it,” Cosby said.
This year’s festival will take place from September 1 to 3.