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| Oxegen | |
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| Location(s) | Punchestown Racecourse, County Kildare, Ireland |
| Years active | 2004 - present |
| Founded by | |
| Date(s) | July 11 - July 13 |
| Genre(s) | Rock |
| Website | www.oxegen.ie |
Oxegen is an annual music festival, held since 2004, sponsored by Heineken. It was previously called Witnness, which ran from 2000 and was sponsored by Guinness. Oxegen was originally a two-day festival but for 2008 was expanded to three days. It takes place at the Punchestown Racecourse in County Kildare, Ireland and has an average attendance of around 80,000 a day, with around 70,000 of these camping on site for the duration, and the rest travelling to the site each day. The festival is promoted by MCD.
As well as the current eight stages of music, there are three large areas for camping which are subdivided by number and the colours blue, red and green - which is the VIP campsite. The backstage and media areas are located in the middle of the site in the buildings normally used to watch the races. Stalls and shops are 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 [1] and An Post first appeared at the festival in 2008. [2] 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 the past couple of years.citation needed There is 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. [3]
Glass bottles are banned from the festival site and items such as bottle corks are banned from the concert arena.
Contents |
2004 Festival
The Strokes, [4] The Cure, Basement Jaxx, [5] The Darkness, Faithless, Kings of Leon, PJ Harvey, Wu-Tang Clan, [6] The Libertines, Muse, [7] Massive Attack, Keane, [8] Ash, Franz Ferdinand, [9] Chemical Brothers, The Divine Comedy, Belle & Sebastian, Scissor Sisters, Snow Patrol, Elbow, Electric Six, Ocean Colour Scene, The Complete Stone Roses and Cartoon are some of the bands that played at the 2004 festival which took place over five stages on the weekend of Saturday July 10 and Sunday July 11. Orbital played their last ever Irish show at the festival, [10] whilst Black Eyed Peas performed in Ireland for the first time in over two years. [11] The Killers, Republic of Loose and Razorlight were among the bands headlining the New Band Stage. David Bowie was due to headline the festival but had to pull out due to illness. [12] Kings of Leon's performance was threatened by an incident at Roskilde the weekend before Oxegen when Nathan Followill injured his wrist but, despite the cancellation of a midweek show in Serbia, [13] the band turned up for Oxegen. [14]
Tickets sold out a week before the event, having gone on sale on Friday March 5. 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. [15]
2004 Line-up
Main acts:
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Saturday July 10 Main Stage |
 Sunday July 11 Main Stage |
* denotes cancelled performance
2005 Festival
Green Day, [16] Foo Fighters, [17] [18] New Order, [19] Ian Brown, [20] James Brown, The Prodigy, [21] Queens of the Stone Age, [22] The Frames, [23] Keane, [24] Feeder, The Killers, [25] Bloc Party, [26] Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, [27] The Bravery, Nine Black Alps, The Departure, Razorlight, LCD Soundsystem, [28] Echo & the Bunnymen, The La's, The Revs and Snoop Dogg are some of the acts that performed on Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10.
2005 Line-up
Main acts: [1]
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Saturday July 9 Oxegen Stage |
Sunday July 10 Oxegen Stage |
2006 Festival
A limited number of tickets for the 2006 festival went on sale a week after the 2005 festival on Friday, July 15. On February 20 the festival was launched and the first acts (including headliners The Who and Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs) were officially announced. [29]
Tickets went on general sale on Friday March 3 at 8 a.m. Weekend camping tickets were priced at €160. This allocation of tickets was completely sold out within 48 minutes. The festival itself encountered bad weather which eclipsed previous records. The weather did improve on Sunday afternoon with sunny skies and a cool, gentle breeze ensuring a decrease in wet festival-goers.
Moments that will be remembered from the festival include The Who's first live performance in Ireland for 35 years, the sound problems encountered by Hard-Fi in particular due to the weather conditions on the Saturday, the Arctic Monkeys' arrival in Ireland, the Kooks performance on the NME Stage which was too small for them. When Franz Ferdinand had completed their set on the Sunday evening, the action on the large screens by the Main Stage switched to BBC One where the World Cup Final had gone down to a penalty shootout. This was followed by the Red Hot Chili Peppers who performed in Ireland for the fourth time in five summers. On the previous night (Saturday), James Brown had headlined the Main Stage in what turned out to be his last ever live performance at a festival in Ireland.
Security arrangements were however criticised as being poor by some sections of the media. The camp-site was not free from trouble in 2006 troublesome, with some reports of tent-burning and an alleged stabbing on the Sunday night/Monday morning of the festival. In the Green Room there was seen to be a considerable leak allowing rain into the enclosed tent.
There were 225 arrests for drugs (with 13 charged for possession with intent to supply), one alleged rape, [30] and the Evening Herald reported that around 250 people were treated for alcohol and drug abuse. Fears were raised of a bad batch of the drug ecstasy when 40 people were sent to the Naas general hospital, but no evidence of such a batch was found.
A number of media outlets were threatened with legal action on their coverage of the Oxegen festival in its aftermath. These included the Irish Independent and boards.ie, where all discussion of MCD events and venues was banned.
2006 Line-up
Main acts:
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Saturday July 8 Main Stage |
Sunday July 9 Main Stage |
2007 Festival
Oxegen '07 took place at Punchestown Racecourse on Saturday July 7 and Sunday July 8. 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 a.m. on Friday March 2 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 went on sale on November 10 2006 at the same price as the 2006 festival.
Bands that played the festival included Muse, Snow Patrol, Arcade Fire, Scissor Sisters, Razorlight, The Killers, Bloc Party, The Kooks, Kings of Leon, Daft Punk, Interpol, My Chemical Romance, Queens of the Stone Age, The Fratellis, The View and The Bravery. Brian Wilson, Avril Lavigne, Mika and Sinéad O'Connor also made appearances. Irish bands that played included The Blizzards, Director, Delorentos and Royseven. Amy Winehouse pulled out at the last minute [31] whilst The Immediate were officially announced only to split up on the same day. [32]
2007 Line-up
For full line-up, see Oxegen 2007#2007 Line-up.
The main acts that played the festival were: [2]
| Saturday 12 July | Sunday 13 July |
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Main Stage: |
Main Stage: |
| Saturday 12 July | Sunday 13 July |
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Stage 2/NME: |
Stage 2/NME: |
* denotes cancelled performance
2008 Festival
Oxegen '08 was run over three days, [33] a first for the festival. It took place from Friday July 11 until Sunday July 13 at Punchestown Racecourse in Naas, County Kildare. Presale tickets went on sale at 8 a.m. on Friday November 30, 2007 at a cost of €197. Actual sale tickets went on sale at 8 a.m. on Friday March 7, 2008 but failed to sell out until May 7. [34] [35] Extra tickets went on sale on June 20 in “a move to combat touting”. [36] [37]
Kings of Leon were the first band to be announced on November 27, 2007 at 5 p.m. [38] [39] They headlined the opening night of the festival. [40] On February 15, 2008, R.E.M. were confirmed for Oxegen 2008, headlining the Saturday night. [41] [42] On February 19 at 16:29, Kaiser Chiefs, The Raconteurs and Ian Brown were announced on the official website [43] [44], followed by The Fratellis, Interpol and Counting Crows the next day [45]. The Chemical Brothers and Justice were amongst those added on February 21, [46] [47] whilst on February 22, Rage Against the Machine were the last of the headliners to be confirmed. [48]. On Sunday February 24, The Verve were confirmed on the official website for an appearance at Oxegen 2008, performing last on the Main Stage on the Saturday. In the following months more bands were announced including Stereophonics,[49] The Prodigy, [50] Panic at the Disco, The Feeling, [51] Editors, Kate Nash, Bowling for Soup, The Hoosiers, Newton Faulkner, Scouting for Girls, The Zutons, Battles, [52] [53] The Wombats, The Subways, Ben Folds, The Stranglers, Amy Macdonald, Alphabeat, Amy Winehouse, [54] The Pogues, The Charlatans, The Swell Season, [55] Manic Street Preachers, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Ting Tings, Black Kids, MGMT, The Kooks, Groove Armada, The National, Tricky, The Go! Team, Feeder, The Pigeon Detectives, The Enemy and One Night Only. [56] Irish performers to play the festival included The Blizzards, Republic of Loose, Róisín Murphy, Bell X1, Mundy, Aslan, Paddy Casey, The Coronas, The Saw Doctors, The Kinetiks, Dirty Epics, Declan O'Rourke, Delorentos, Future Kings of Spain, Concerto For Constantine, God Is an Astronaut, The Script, Fight Like Apes, Codes and Oppenheimer.
2008 Line-up
For full line-up, see Oxegen 2008#Stages.
The main acts that played the festival were: [3]