Zara Larsson at Electric Picnic: Biblical rain can’t stop hitmaker in prime Friday pop slot

Zara LarssonMain Stage, Electric Picnic★★★★☆Day one of Electric Picnic is a pop-heavy affair, with the Swedish hitmaker Zara Larsson bagging the prime late-evening slot on the main stage – a berth previously taken by Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan.Pop stars at the Picnic are often overnight success stories dropped into the line-up, but it has been a longer haul for Larsson, who released her debut album in 2014 and only truly achieved mainstream recognition this year with Stateside, her PinkPantheress collaboration.That’s the sort of hard slog more associated with rock than the flash-in-the-pan world of pop. But if the road has been long, Larsson is clearly appreciative of how far she has come. “I’m so happy it’s not raining any more,” she declares, having started 30 minutes late because of the biblical downpour that hit Electric Picnic midafternoon.As the last of the daylight glimmers over Stradbally, she’s straight into Midnight Sun, a bittersweet banger that has gone viral after spawning a TikTok dance. Held aloft by her backing hoofers, Larsson re-creates the dance, as do some cheeky punters up front. (Well done to them: the pals they’re holding aloft must be soaking after all that rain.)READ MOREElectric Picnic 2026: Fiadh Byrne (centre) watches Zara Larsson arrive on stage on Friday. Photograph: Enda O’Dowd Electric Picnic 2026: Zara Larsson fans in the Main Stage arena on Friday. Photograph: Enda O’Dowd Viral gives way to stomping excitement as she plunges into Can’t Tame Her before a cover of Tyla’s She Did It Again puts the grrrr into R&B. Here and elsewhere, the pop verve comes with a helping of headbanging intensity courtesy of her guitarist and keen keytar player, who work up a soft metal throb on Wow.Chatty between songs, Larsson explains the meaning of her affirmative bopper Pretty Ugly by having the crowd declare themselves “pretty” and then “ugly”, the latter being the singer’s way of describing self-actualisation and learning to appreciate inner beauty. It’s a message that goes down so well with the chap in the bucket hat standing next to me that he splashes his cocktail all over everyone within 10 paces. Well, it’s not as if we can get any wetter.Stateside comes and goes with a barely a murmur – is Stradbally cool on PinkPantheress? – before Larsson invites two sisters and their cousin up for Lush Life, sketching a dolphin on their T-shirt and then having them dance along.That moment is topped by her other big hit, Symphony, her collaboration with Clean Bandit. As the sinking sun – no rain yet! – twinkles its farewell to Larsson, she gazes out at the crowd with a mixture of joy and wonder, a pop star who took the long way around but has got here all the same.For all the latest festival news, reviews and more, download The Irish Times app