SombrMain Stage, Electric Picnic★★★★☆You have to credit Sombr for pulling off one of the most ludicrous entrances in the history of Electric Picnic, as the screens show the 21-year-old New York pop star pulling up backstage in a Mercedes, trying to shoot a glass of stout with a crossbow and then yelling at the camera as he romps out into the spotlight.It’s a thoroughly theatrical arrival from a singer who, as recently as May 2025, was second on the bill at 3Olympia, the mid-sized Dublin venue, and who materialises in deepest Co Laois dressed in a military jacket that suggests a recently demobbed corporal from the tsar’s army.Barely five minutes in and already we’re at bonkers factor 10. Sombr – real name Shane Michael Boose – scarcely lets up, whether imitating the David Bowie-Mick Ronson dynamic from the Ziggy Stardust era with a guitarist dressed like the disciplinarian from the Village People or dragging Noel and Mike Hogan of The Cranberries on to the stage.It’s the second time he has done a Cranberries crossover. At 3Arena in March they backed him on their lullaby Linger. Now they lead Stradbally on a singalong version of the Celtic grunge favourite Zombie – surely the weirdest mash-up witnessed in an Irish field since Olivia Rodrigo covered Fontaines DC.Electric Picnic 2026: Mike and Noel Hogan of The Cranberries with Sombr on Friday night. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd Electric Picnic 2026: Sombr on stage on Friday. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd Electric Picnic 2026: Sombr fans in the main arena on Friday night. Photograph: Enda O'Dowd Amid the cars, crossbows and Cranberries, it would be easy to overlook Sombr’s music. But perhaps that’s the point. Despite cavorting about like a metal overlord heading for the mosh pit, songs such as We Never Dated, I Wish I Knew How to Quit You and Homewrecker are firmly in the teen-pop register and often have to do with his struggles around acquiring and retaining a girlfriend.[ Electric Picnic 2026: Saturday stage times for all the top areas, weather forecast and moreOpens in new window ]But the thinness of some of the material is eclipsed by the fury with which Sombr flings himself into the performance, so that it’s like watching Justin Bieber fronting Nine Inch Nails. There’s a surprise at the end, too – at least for Sombr, who seems to have gone over his allotted spell and has his sound cut. But the mighty Boose keeps screaming. It’s one final moment of madness in a set that, for sheer pandemonium, earns an instant place in the Stradbally history books.For all the latest festival news, reviews and more, download the Irish Times app