The organisers of Electric Picnic have moved the festival back three weeks to the end of September in a bid to ensure it goes ahead.

In a statement this afternoon, the organisers of the music and arts festival said they felt moving it to the weekend of September 24-26 gives them “a much better chance” of the event going ahead.

The festival did not go ahead last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but organisers are hopeful the event can return later this year.

“Given the great progress the HSE is making on the vaccine rollout so far, and the recently announced target of having at least 70pc of the country fully vaccinated by the end of July, we are still confident that the festival can take place this year.

“That being said, we feel we have a much better chance of that happening by moving the dates back a few weeks to September 24-26 instead of the original dates of September 3-5,” the statement read.

The organisers of the festival said they were “desperate as anyone else” to get the entertainment industry back up and running, and said “if moving the festival further back in September helps that dream become a reality then we feel it’s the right decision to make”.

Electric Picnic acknowledged the new date may not suit everyone and said if ticket holders can’t make the rescheduled event then they will be entitled to a full refund.

“Everyone in our industry, and the entire country for that matter, needs some sort of hope that the end of this pandemic is in sight. We truly wish that Electric Picnic will be the light at the end of the tunnel and we can welcome you all to Stradbally this year,” the statement said.