Belturbet man takes Electric Picnic by storm
It was Saturday afternoon at Electric Picnic’s sellout festival 2025 when Cormac McCann took to the new piano stage called Electric Keys.
The weather was predicted to be bad, but the skies were clear. The wind was howling and so were the stages around him.
A crowd of loyal fans from Cavan and friends from Cormac's college days had gathered to cheer their local celebrity.
Cormac was one of 12 pianists picked from 174 applicants to perform at this year’s EP.
He was selected to close the stage that day and the instruction was to finish with a popular singalong session. The Belturbet pianist rose to the challenge and performed a perfectly timed 20 minute set of piano based singalong classics from Queen, Billy Joel and Frank Sinatra. He also snuck in some treats like ACDC’s Thunderstruck, Chopin's Minute Waltz and Fatboy Slim, one of the festival headliners.
There was also room for comical moments with a melodic impression of J. S. Bach horse back riding the grand national. The casio keyboard also made a cameo appearance with Van Halen’s jump. Cormac also treated the Cavan audience to a rap version of ‘Cavan Girl’ and a verse from his parody ‘My Kind of Town Belturbet.’ The highlight was an eagerly requested encore where the stage organiser requested Cormac's newly written Electric Picnic theme song. Not only did he perform with great appreciation but he led the audience in a tutorial on how to sing it back to him.
The Electric Keys stage closed that day with tumultuous applause with the crowd quickly scattering to catch the end of the highly anticipated homecoming gig from Kneecap.
The following day Cormac did an impromptu, non-scheduled one hour long set on the stage to an audience of new admirers. After giving such enthusiasm and energy to this new project of the Electric Keys stage, there is a good chance you will catch the Cavan man at EP 2026.
You can catch Cormac jamming on keyboard with the band this Saturday night in Blessings Bar and also on culture night at Belturbet railway station with the Parasol All Stars jazz band. Solo concerts are currently being planned for 2026. Watch this space.