Body Paint, Curry & Fire. Oh, and Music! Electric Picnic - The Best Bits

That's that so. Electric Picnic is over so that means summer is really over now. The cold, cold weather this weekend could have told us that though.

We saw some great music, ate some nice (and not-so-nice) things, had a lot of fun and generally enjoyed the fact that it didn't rain. Repeat: It didn't rain. At an Irish festival.

Here's our recap of our best bits of Electric Picnic, both musical and non-musical. Apologies for the crappy photos.

• This camper van we saw on the way to Stradbally

Something tells us that this wasn't Grace Jones's tour bus, but kudos to the people who made the effort. That's a reference to her tune 'Pull Up to the Bumper', in case you didn't know. Oh, and Grace Jones's set was pretty good, too - the right levels of bonkers and entertaining. And she looked incredible in that tribal body paint, too. Wow.

• The installations

Electric Picnic always delivers when it comes to the installations around the site; it's the little touches like that which set it apart from other festivals. A special mention goes to the Trailer Park, which knocked it out of the er… park. It's gone from a little fringe area tucked away at the back to a space jam-packed with interesting stuff going on (and also €5 G&Ts, slurp) and was busy the whole weekend.

• My Lovely Horse Ranch

It's Saturday afternoon, it's sunny, so you pull up a bale of hay and spend a very enjoyable twenty minutes watching the very funny Foil, Arms & Hog do a few sketches on the My Lovely Horse Ranch stage. It's an area reserved for Cathy Davey's animal charity, which meant you could even pat a few horses and dogs. We forgot to take a photo, so this one is cribbed from Twitter.

• The crowd at 2 Unlimited

Look, we're not going to pretend that 2 Unlimited were anything close to a musical highlight. C'mon, get real. But the crowd that they pulled to the Electric Ireland #90sPowerParty dance tent was literally 7 or 8 deep and they were a way to pass the time for some cheesy, good-natured nostalgic fun. In fact, that stage was packed for pretty much the whole weekend with the likes of Vengaboys, Mark McCabe, Smash Hits and more playing some '90s dance-pop classics.

• My Morning Jacket

Jim James and co. haven't played here in years, but after their gig on Friday - and the warm welcome they received in the Electric Arena - they should hopefully be back this way soon. Brilliant, powerful set. What a set of pipes that man has. Not to mention his hair.

• Belle & Sebastian

Friday was a great day for music. Belle & Sebastian are one of our favourite bands anyway, and again, it's been a long time since they played Ireland - almost five years, in fact. Stuart Murdoch and co. might have finished a few minutes early, but their set was an upbeat, lively affair that sent us back out into the cool evening air with a spring in our step.

• Alvvays

This Canadian band have a bigger Irish following than even they thought. They sounded amazing on the Cosby Stage on Saturday afternoon, with lead singer Molly Rankin's crystalline voice holding up impressively live, while their last song 'Archie, Marry Me' instigated a mini mosh-pit and mass singalong. If you like bands like Camera Obscura, make sure to check their self-titled debut out.

• The Literary Tent

As always, the Mindfield area was generally a bastion of sanity amidst the ongoing madness outside, and the Literary Tent was particularly oasis-like over the weekend - whether you planned to visit it, or just happened to poke your nose in. We caught Sinead Gleeson's talk with John Banville and Tom McCarthy, and it was really enjoyable. Choice quote from John Banville: "I've ruined a lot of peoples' holidays in my time."

• Future Islands

The sun came out. The sky was blue. Sam Herring growled and lepped around the stage like a mad thing. All was well with the world.

• The chair-o-planes

Who doesn't like the chairoplanes? These ones went REALLY HIGH and we made the mistake of going on them late on Saturday night, when temperatures were even colder all the way up there. Camping on Saturday night was cold, FYI. Very, very cold.

• Rubberbandits

We generally don't really bother with the comedy tent at Electric Picnic, but this year we had to make an exception for Rubberbandits. Gas craic, so they were.

• Kanum's Thai green curry

It might not look like much, but believe us - this Thai green curry with veg and tofu was without a doubt the best meal that we had all weekend. Flavour and heat in a carton for the princely sum of €8. Better value than most.

• Hot Chip

This was probably the best we've ever seen Hot Chip, and we've seen them a good few times at this point. If ever there was any doubt that the electropoppers' sound is more suited to a tent than a festival's main stage, they blew them out of the water on Saturday night. A robust, tight set packed with hits and a great segue into Saturday night as the sun went down.

• Blur

Blur. BLUR! They didn't disappoint, with a brilliantly-paced and balanced set that took in new tunes from their album The Magic Whip as well as the vast majority of the hits, before ending on a sob-inducing The Universal. Again, no photo. Too excited. Sorry.

• This fire

Have we mentioned how cold it was on Saturday night? True, it didn't rain, but it was COLD. This fire, in the corner of the Body & Soul, proved a godsend and a perfect way to take a breather and chill out. And it smelled amazing, too.

• The Red Bull Disco Brunch

The RBMA stage might be known colloquially as 'the rave in the woods', but early on Sunday afternoon it was a little haven of blessed-out tunes and tasty brunch foods. A nice way to step away from the madness and ease yourself into the final day.

• This guy's t-shirt

"Wellies? Check. Cash? Check. Tent? Check. Blood-splattered t-shirt featuring a notorious fictional psychopath? Check."

• Jape

It's been a while since we've seen Jape live, and my, how they've come along. Flanked by two backing singers who made all the difference to filling out their sound, Richie Egan and co. turned in an impressive performance on Sunday afternoon. It's a shame that it wasn't on a little later, perhaps (and it clashed with the hurling final), but the sucker-punch of Scorpio and I Was a Man were excellent.

• Django Django

One of our most anticipated acts of the weekend, Django Django didn't disappoint. Wow. They've come a long way from filling tiny venues like Dublin's Grand Social. Like Jape, their sound has become beefier, tighter and there's generally a heck of a lot more craft to their performance these days. They pulled a big crowd to the Electric Arena on their final summer festival show of the year, and it was superb.

• Getting home early(ish)

We love you Electric Picnic, but we decided to hit the road early(ish) on Sunday which meant that we beat the traffic. Sadly, it meant that we missed the likes of Villagers, Interpol and Tame Impala (sob! Why so late?!) but sure look, we're old now and our feet hurt and some of us have work in the morning.

Were you there? Did you have an amazing time in the huge, dry field or were you disappointed?