Oxegen/ˈɒksɛdʒɛn/ was a music festival in Ireland, first held from 2004–2011 as a rock and pop festival and again in 2013 with dance and chart acts only. The event was regularly cited as Ireland's biggest music festival,[3][4][5][6] and, by 2009, it was being cited as the greenest festival, being a 100% carbon neutral event in Ireland,[7] although this claim is highly disputed[by whom?] as green-washing[citation needed]. It was previously called Witnness,[8] which ran from 2000 and was sponsored by Guinness. The event was promoted by MCD and was sponsored by Heineken. Oxegen was originally a three-day festival, but from 2008 onwards, it was expanded to four days.
It took place at the Punchestown Racecourse in County Kildare, Ireland and has an average attendance of around 60,000 a day, with around 50,000 of these camping on site for the duration, and the rest travelling to the site each day. It took place on the same weekend as T in the Park in Scotland and shared a very similar lineup each year, but Oxegen was generally regarded as Ireland's version of the Glastonbury Festival, with the 2008 festival sharing three of the same headliners as its English counterpart.[9]
Oxegen attracted significant attention from outside Ireland, with many of those attending travelling from overseas experiencing a "mass exodus" to the festival.[10][11] Members of bands such as The Killers, Snow Patrol and R.E.M. have spoken positively of their experiences at the festival. Celebrities frequently attend, including models Helena Christensen (a regular attendant)[12][13] and television personality Chris Pontius,[14] actor Josh Hartnett,[12] and Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, who was pursued by "half the journalists in the country" and many of his own relatives for much of the 2008 festival.[13][15] The event has also attracted some negative publicity, particularly following the 2006 festival. This is attributed to such factors as the age of admission (17) and easy access to alcohol.[16]
Oxegen, for two consecutive years, was named as the Best European Festival in a poll which included festivals from France, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and other countries, leading The Sunday Business Post's Nicola Cooke to describe it as "one of the most successful music festivals in Ireland has [sic]".[17] Leagues O'Toole has described it as an "enormously successful, award-winning, established brand [...] aimed at a young audience out for a good time, a post-Leaving Cert rite of passage perfect for acts with big singalong tunes that sound great in the mud".[18] Oxegen received a mention in the Colum McCannshort story "Aisling".[19]
In April 2014, organisers announced that the Oxegen festival would not be going ahead that year, citing a lack of suitable headline acts.[20]
History
Oxegen first took place in 2004 over the second weekend in July. The Killers, who went on to headline the festival twice in 2007 and 2009, were one of the bands to appear at the first Oxegen. Dave Keuning, in an interview with Hot Press prior to the 2009 festival, described Oxegen as "a big deal because it's one of the first European festivals we played [sic] when we came over from Vegas in 2004. We only had one hit—"Mr. Brightside"—and were worried in case no one showed. But the tent was packed with people screaming out the words to songs we didn't think they knew. It was that night we thought, 'Hey, something's happening here!' Oxegen more so than Glastonbury even was the highlight of our summer."[21]
The original festival, Witnness, sponsored by Guinness, took place during the start of August with notable headliners, including Oasis, The Foo Fighters and Green Day. In its second and third year, running changed its dates to the second weekend of July. In 2008 Oxegen became a three-day festival.[22]
R.E.M. members Michael Stipe and Peter Buck watched several shows from side stage at Oxegen 2007 before returning to headline the festival the following year.[25] Stipe credits his 2007 visit with inspiring him to want to go on tour again, saying: "I saw all these great bands and the next day after the festival we went into the studio."[26]
Muse, known for their spectacular light show and their reputation as one of the best live bands in the world, headlined Oxegen 2007.[27] They returned to headline the mainstage on the Saturday night of the 2010 festival.
Battles played the biggest festival show of their career at that time in the Pet Sounds Arena during Oxegen 2008.[28]The Prodigy played four new songs at Oxegen 2008. Also in 2008, Interpol were sent champagne by U2 as they arrived for rehearsals.[29]
Each Oxegen has been defined by the attention focused on its own weather, with The Belfast Telegraph referring to 2005 as "the sunny one", 2006 as "the torrentially rainy one", 2007 as "the muddy one" and 2008 as "the so-so one".[31]
As well as the current eight stages of music, there were three large areas for camping which were subdivided by number and the colours blue, red and green – which was the VIP campsite. The backstage and media areas were located in the middle of the site in the buildings normally used to watch the races. Stalls and shops were also provided for festival-goers, as well as toilet and shower areas for campers from 2006 onwards.
A Centra store was located in each campsite from 2007 onwards[32] and An Post first appeared at the festival in 2008.[33]
The toilet facilities, which had previously been criticised by some as not being adequate for the large number of people at the festival, were improved in recent[when?] years.[citation needed] There was also a funfair adjacent to the arena, featuring a big wheel and other rides, such as the "Magic Carpet", the "Big Drop", and the roller coaster. In 2008, an additional funfair was located in the blue campsite alongside other campsite entertainment such as a circus, silent disco and the Xbox Live Stage.[34] Glass in any form was banned from the festival site and bottle corks, cans and umbrellas are banned from the concert arena.[35]
52 miles of fencing are used across the site.[36] 14 megawatts of power are used to energise Oxegen, with 28,000 miles of cable used to transfer this power.[36] 25,000 litre water tankers are located around the site.[36] Hats and cloaks are regularly seen,[37] whilst wellies are also commonly worn by festival-goers.[38]
The Dance Arena was a large shed previously used for ideal homes exhibitions.[39]
Tickets sold out a week before the event, having gone on sale on Friday 5 March. One-day tickets cost €59.50, two-day tickets were priced at €110.00 whilst a two-day ticket with camping included cost €130.00.[52]
Oxegen 2006 took place at Punchestown Racecourse from 8 to 9 July. A limited number of tickets for the festival went on sale a week after the 2005 festival on Friday 15 July. On 20 February the festival was launched and the first acts were officially announced.[67] Tickets went on general sale on Friday 3 March at 8 am, with weekend camping tickets priced at €160. This allocation of tickets sold out within 48 minutes. The festival itself encountered bad weather which eclipsed previous records. There were improvements on the Sunday afternoon with sunny skies and a cool, gentle breeze ensuring a decrease in wet festival-goers.
Security arrangements were criticised as being poor by some sections of the media. The camp-site was not free from trouble, with reports of tent-burning and an alleged stabbing on the Sunday night/Monday morning of the festival.[68]
In the Green Room a considerable leak allowed rain into the enclosed marquee. There were 225 arrests for drugs (with 13 charged for possession with intent to supply), one alleged rape,[69] and the Evening Herald reported that around 250 people were treated for alcohol and drug abuse. When 40 people were sent to Naas General Hospital, fears were raised of a bad batch of ecstasy, but no evidence of such a batch was found. A number of media outlets were threatened with legal action on their coverage of Oxegen 2006 in its aftermath. These included the Irish Independent and boards.ie, where all discussion of MCD events and venues was banned.
Oxegen '07 took place at Punchestown Racecourse from 7 to 8 July. The Live Earth concerts occurred around the world on the same day as the Saturday of Oxegen 2007. Tickets went on general sale at 8 am on Friday 2 March 2007. These sold out in under seventy minutes. The price of a day ticket rose to €96.50, a weekend ticket cost €177.50, whilst the price of a weekend ticket plus camping this year rose to €197.50 (roughly the same price as a three-day Electric Picnic ticket), as compared to €160 in 2006. As in 2006, it was possible to purchase four weekend camping tickets together and receive a free car parking ticket. As with previous years, a number of pre-sale tickets without the price increase went on sale in November 2006.
Oxegen '08 was a three-day event,[73] a first for the festival. It took place from Friday 11 July until Sunday 13 July at Punchestown Racecourse in Naas, County Kildare. Presale tickets went on sale at 8:00 am on Friday 30 November 2007 at a cost of €197. Actual sale tickets went on sale at 8:00 am on Friday 7 March 2008 but failed to sell out until 7 May.[74][75] Extra tickets went on sale on 20 June in "a move to combat touting".[76][77]
In late 2008, Oxegen '08 won the "Yourope Award for Best European Festival" which was voted for by members of the public from across Europe.[97] The festival was chosen ahead of rivals such as Glastonbury, Roskilde and T in the Park.
Oxegen 2010 was scheduled to be Arcade Fire's first Irish appearance since performing in the Phoenix Park and was their first 2010 European show to be confirmed.[102][103] Bell X1 gave their only Irish performance of the summer at the event on 11 July.[104] Biffy Clyro were added as well as Plan B and Kids in Glass Houses. Barry "The Blender" Henderson (of "I Am Fighter" fame) also made an appearance.[citation needed]
An anticipated appearance by Jedward did not materialise***.[105] Control Thieves did not appear at that year's festival.[citation needed] Irish band The Overview were also rumoured to be a late addition to the line-up.[citation needed]
– ** artist cancelled attendance after official announcement
2012 hiatus
On 21 December 2011, MCD posted a short notice on the Oxegen website confirming rumours that Oxegen 2012 had been cancelled. The statement read as follows: "OXEGEN, like Glastonbury, is taking a year off in 2012 and will be back July 2013. Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas & peaceful New Year. Keep Rockin' in 2012 and we will see you in 2013! Your Oxegen Team".[1][2][106][107][108]
The cancellation was expected to damage the local economy in Kildare.[109] Media described the Dublin leg of The Stone RosesReunion Tour, held in Phoenix Park on 5 July 2012, as a replacement for the year's lack of Oxegen.[110][111] A Swedish House Mafia concert at the same venue two days later also drew comparisons with the festival, with "Oxegen-like behaviour" culminating in a number of random unprovoked attacks and concerns that "The off-stage events which have dominated the news agenda since the Swedish House Mafia show [...] will forevermore be associated with stabbings and suspected drug deaths rather than the music."[112]
MCD chief Denis Desmond revealed, on the official Oxegen website in April 2013, the news that Oxegen will return to the Irish festival line-up this summer, after a one-year hiatus.
The festival took place in its usual home of Punchestown Racecourse in Kildare, and took place from 2–4 August 2013.[113]
On 22 April an announcement was made to confirm the first set of acts playing. Confirmed were Calvin Harris, Rizzle Kicks, Jack Beats, Duke Dumont, Example, Pitbull, Nero. On 24 April David Guetta was announced as one of the headline acts. The line-up was heavily criticized for having no guitar bands. The actual announcement posts were deleted on the same day as negative feedback was so heavy that festival promoters urged MCD to remove it to avoid embarrassment.[citation needed] It is thought that ticket sales were poor, and this may have been the last time MCD attend the festival. Revellers noted that there were 38 bands above this years headliners in 2010.[114]
^O'Toole, Leagues (25 June 2010). "Living on the edge". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 25 June 2010. The two big events that bookend the Irish summer are Oxegen and Electric Picnic, both now enormously successful, award-winning, established brands. [...] On one hand you have MCD's Oxegen, which starts on Friday, July 9th, a three-day music extravaganza at Punchestown Racecourse in Kildare aimed at a young audience out for a good time, a post-Leaving Cert rite of passage perfect for acts with big singalong tunes that sound great in the mud.
^Walsh, Caroline (19 June 2010). "Loose Leaves: Colum McCann tries his hand at the aisling". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 19 June 2010. Now it's Colum McCann's turn. His new short story entitled Aisling, in the summer issue of the Paris Review , is quite a departure from the realist prose of his National Book Award-winning novel Let the Great World Spin. [...] And although it's very short, at under two and a half pages, he manages to include a wide range of Irish references, from Loreto Foxrock to Oxegen and the Trocadero.
^"Fleetwood Mac to play Dublin". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2009. Former Oxegen headliners Muse, who have a spectacular light show and have gained a reputation for being one of the best live bands in the world, will play the venue on 6 November. They were the first group to play the new Wembley Stadium.(subscription required)
^Clayton-Lea, Tony (14 August 2009). "What's on your rider?". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 14 August 2009. What's the best gig you've been to? More than likely the Oxegen fest. It was just so big and so strange to be in a new country and get such a reception. Really, it was just an out-of-body experience.
^"Oxegen " FAQ : Food & Drink". Archived from the original on 17 May 2010. No glass is allowed in the campsite but liquids can be transferred into plastic bottles at the bottle decanting stations at the entrance to the campsite.
^Carroll, Steven (9 July 2010). "Wellies de rigueur at Oxegen". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 9 July 2010. The dance arena, a huge shed that once hosted ideal homes exhibitions, has proved a popular shelter for some of the masses. This was much to the delight of Irish rugby star Cian Healy, who has swapped the front row of the scrum for a spot behind the decks as he moonlights as DJ Church.
^"Cure live broadcast cancelled". The Irish Times. 26 February 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2009. The band played the Oxegen festival in 2004 and in Dublin's Point in June 1996.(subscription required)
^"Oxegen 2012 cancelled". RTÉ Ten. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. 21 December 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
^McGreevy, Ronan; Holland, Kitty (21 December 2011). "Oxegen festival cancelled for 2012". The Irish Times. Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
