Timahoe is a village in Co Laois and a men’s choir started up in November 2023 to encourage men from the area to strike up relationships with one another.
Kildare priest Father David Vard moved to Stradbally in Co Laois shortly before Timahoe Men’s Choir started up and joined as a way to integrate into his new community.
On the main stage today, there was a little bit of everything – Maniac 2000, Wonderwall, Dancing Queen, and Proud Mary to name but a few.
“We have every type of person in the choir,” Fr Vard said.
“We have guards, prison officers, teachers, retired and young people, we have priests.
“We all like different types of music, and we’re all just doing it for the fun of music, and also to get together and to sing a few songs together as men and have a chat.
“Most importantly, we’re not fantastic singers or performers, but the fact that there’s a group of men in an Irish village in Co Laois who get together every Monday night, religiously, I think that’s fantastic and needs to be celebrated and that’s what we were celebrating on that main stage.”
Timahoe Men’s Choir played some smaller stages at last year’s festival and Fr Vard said it was “beyond our expectations” to be invited to play the main stage this year.
“We were really worried that we’d have no one in front of us,” said Fr Vard, “but we had a fantastic crowd of locals, of non-locals, and it’s just a great buzz and a great high.
“I live at the gate of the festival, and I get to walk in and walk out, it’s absolutely fantastic.”
The choir were also joined by Laois Rose Katelyn Cummins, who won the 2025 Rose of Tralee.
“I’m a Kildare man but she’s the International Rose and that’s a huge accomplishment for our county and we need to celebrate that as well.”
Meanwhile, when asked if his appearance was the first time a priest was on the main stage at Electric Picnic, Fr Vard said the more important point is that it’s the first time a Laois act has been on the main stage.
“This is an international festival and it gets people from all over the world, with international artists and performers, but as Irish people, we need to support Irish.
“To see that on the main stage today, having a Laois choir in Stradbally, and now we’re off now to support the Laois community choir on a different stage.”
Meanwhile, Fr Vard has been enjoying the festival this year and took in Chappell Roan’s first Irish appearance on Friday night.
“I’m not an alien, I do live in the world,” said Fr Vard when asked about attending Chappell Roan.
“I’m only 33 so I’ve grown up with this sort of stuff, for example, I would have gone to the Oxegen festival as a teenager.”
He added: “I think it’s so important to normalise priesthood, and to see that your neighbour could become a priest, or you yourself could become a priest or a nun.
“We are normal people, we have our own struggles, we like to have a bit of craic.
“At end of the day, and without spiritualising it too much, we are just normal but we also follow God.”