Some attendees of this year's Electric Picnic festival have left early, after heavy rain flooded campsites in County Laois.

One festival-goer has held onto her tickets since before the pandemic, but left after just 24 hours due to the unprecedented weather conditions.

Robyn McTallght, a veteran attendee, told Newstalk that she has "never seen rain like it".

"It was rain that drenched you as soon as it started."

When she initially showed up to the festival, "the ground was so dry we couldn't get our tent pegs in" and "the sun was splitting the skies".

"So we were like: Look, even if it rains a little bit tonight, it should dry up by the morning."

Quick change

As per advice, Ms McTallaght and her friends put their clothes and supplies in the middle of the tent, expecting the edges to get wet.

However, after leaving their tent for five minutes, they returned to find "everything was wet inside it".

She said that picking up a sleeping bag was like "wringing out a cloth".

"Heartbreaking"

For Ms McTallaght, the realisation she would have to leave the festival she'd waited so long to attend was "heartbreaking".

"I was proper crying on my way to the car and everything", she said.

"I actually had to abandon a lot of my stuff there."

Workers

Róise Quinn was working as a bartender at the festival, but she also chose to leave early because of the bad weather.

She said that the staff campsite was "really really muddy".

A puddle of water formed under her partner while they were sleeping in the tent on the first night, and it only got worse.

"Everything was soaked to the bone."

That was when Ms Quinn decided it was time to leave.

Weather conditions

A status yellow rainfall warning was issued for the whole country this weekend.

It begins at 9pm tonight, and will run until 12 noon tomorrow, Sunday.

Forecaster Matthew Martin said the ground being very dry can cause issues with run off and "can actually make the flooding worse".

"What you want to avoid is really heavy falls, which could result in flooding."

Main image shows a festival-goer in a muddy campsite. Picture by: Róise Quinn