Teacher says Yes to Electric Picnic proposal of marriage

Venice, Paris, New York, Caribbean beaches, all have been well-exercised locations for the hairier of the pair to drop on one knee and offer a tiny lump of pressurised carbon – but a Quizzy Van in a field in Laois?

Well, that turned out to be the dream venue for a couple from Athy, who finally got engaged after 20 years in a most curious corner of Electric Picnic – the Quizzy Van! The act was greeted with chants of ‘Olé, Olé, Olé’ by over a hundred people and a video of it was shared widely.

Jess Scott (43), a schoolteacher at Scoil Mhicil Naofa in Athy was the sweepee, while her partner of two decades – farmer Andrew Finn (46) – was the sweeper, in this highly original proposal at a table quiz in the trailer field.

“Yes, I was proposed to at a table quiz at the Electric Picnic – the Quizzy Van in the trailer park!” laughed Jess. “To be fair, we had been talking about marriage recently, but I never expected this!”

“We were there on the Friday night, and Andrew thought ‘could this be the place?’ He had the idea and he ran it past our friends, and they were all like: ‘Oh, it’s SOOO ye!’ So, he spoke to the Quizzy Van man and he said it was alright.

“Then it was the last question of the night and they handed the mic to Andrew and I nearly died! I’m 43 and he’s 46. He’s dragged it out for 20 years, but he did it!”

Jess said that the couple’s kids Finn (20) Adi (13), Jools (11) and Penny (10) are thrilled. In the meantime, Jess has just returned to school, while Andrew is already back on the family farm in Milltown, before they start planning the big day out in Nerja, Spain in June 2025.