Oxegen 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, and, by 2009, it was being cited as the greenest festival, being a 100% carbon neutral event in Ireland, although some critics questioned how environmentally friendly the festival was from 2008 onwards. It was previously called Witnness, 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.
Oxegen attracted significant attention from outside Ireland, with many of those attending travelling from overseas experiencing a "mass exodus" to the festival. 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) and television personality Chris Pontius, actor Josh Hartnett, 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. 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.
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 Posts Nicola Cooke to describe it as "one of the most successful music festivals in Ireland has". 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". Oxegen received a mention in the Colum McCann short story "Aisling".
In April 2014, organisers announced that the Oxegen festival would not be going ahead that year, citing a lack of suitable headline acts.
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 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."
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.
Rodrigo y Gabriela made their breakthrough after being asked by Damien Rice to perform with him at Oxegen 2004.
The Japanese Popstars formed after viewing several dance acts at Oxegen 2006.
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. 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."
Muse, known for their spectacular light show and their reputation as one of the best live bands in the world, headlined Oxegen 2007. 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. The Prodigy played four new songs at Oxegen 2008. Also in 2008, Interpol were sent champagne by U2 as they arrived for rehearsals.
Chad Wolf of Carolina Liar described the band's performance at Oxegen 2009 as "an out-of-body experience".
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".
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011Headliners included: The Cure The Strokes Kings of Leon The Libertines Muse (more...)Headliners included: Green Day Foo Fighters The Killers The Prodigy New Order (more...)Headliners included: The Who Red Hot Chili Peppers The Strokes Arctic Monkeys Franz Ferdinand (more...)Headliners included: Snow Patrol Muse The Killers Daft Punk Razorlight (more...)Headliners included: Kings of Leon Rage Against the Machine R.E.M. (Setlist) The Verve The Prodigy (more...)Headliners included: Kings of Leon Blur Lady Gaga The Killers Snow Patrol (more...)Headliners included: Eminem Muse Arcade Fire Jay-Z The Prodigy Kasabian Fatboy Slim (more...)Headliners included: Coldplay Foo Fighters Beyoncé Arctic Monkeys The Black Eyed Peas The Strokes My Chemical Romance Pendulum (more...)
Facilities 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"SHOP TILL YOU DROP!" and An Post first appeared at the festival in 2008. 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. Glass in any form was banned from the festival site and bottle corks, cans and umbrellas are banned from the concert arena.
52 miles of fencing are used across the site. 14 megawatts of power are used to energise Oxegen, with 28,000 miles of cable used to transfer this power. 25,000 litre water tankers are located around the site. Hats and cloaks are regularly seen, whilst wellies are also commonly worn by festival-goers.
The Dance Arena was a large shed previously used for ideal homes exhibitions.
2004 Festival Oxegen 2004 took place at Punchestown Racecourse from 10 to 11 July. The Strokes, The Cure, Basement Jaxx, The Darkness, Faithless, Kings of Leon, PJ Harvey, Wu-Tang Clan, The Libertines, Muse, Massive Attack, Keane, Franz Ferdinand, Chemical Brothers, Belle & Sebastian, Scissor Sisters, 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. Orbital played their last ever Irish show at the festival, whilst The Black Eyed Peas performed in Ireland for the first time in over two years. The Killers, Republic of Loose and Razorlight were among the bands headlining the New Band Stage. Other Irish acts to appear included Ash, The Divine Comedy, Hothouse Flowers, The Saw Doctors, HAL, Snow Patrol, The Devlins, Simple Kid, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Cathy Davey and Bell X1. David Bowie was due to headline the festival but had to pull out due to illness. 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, the band turned up for Oxegen.
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.
2004 Line-up The main acts that played the festival were:
Saturday 10 July Sunday 11 July (running order)Main Stage: The Cure The Strokes Kings of Leon PJ Harvey The Divine Comedy Franz Ferdinand Scissor Sisters Goldie Lookin Chain Kharma 45 HalMain Stage: David Bowie* The Darkness Muse (moved to the main stage) Ash Faithless Pink The Black Eyed Peas Hothouse Flowers The Saw Doctors * – denotes cancelled performance
2005 Festival
Oxegen 2005 took place at Punchestown Racecourse from 9 to 10 July. Green Day and Foo Fighters headlined. Also appearing were New Order, Ian Brown, James Brown, The Prodigy, Queens of the Stone Age, The Frames, Keane, Feeder, The Killers, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, The Bravery, Nine Black Alps, The Departure, Razorlight, LCD Soundsystem, Echo & the Bunnymen, The La's and Snoop Dogg. Irish acts to appear included The Revs, The Saw Doctors, Kerbdog, HAL, Bronagh Gallagher, Humanzi, Director and The Blizzards.
2005 Line-up For full line-up, see Oxegen 2005#2005 Line-up.
The main acts that played the festival were:
Saturday 9 July
Oxegen Stage
Green Day The Frames Snoop Dogg Razorlight Kaiser Chiefs Queens of the Stone Age The Saw Doctors Björn Again The Stands
Sunday 10 July
Oxegen Stage
Foo Fighters Keane The Killers The Streets Audioslave Feeder The Beautiful South The Revs
2006 Festival
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. 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.
The Who and Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined the festival, the former performing live in Ireland for the first time in 35 years, the latter for the fourth time in five summers. James Brown made his last ever live performance at an Irish festival and Arctic Monkeys their first festival appearance in Ireland. Also appearing were The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Placebo, Richard Ashcroft, Primal Scream, Editors, Feeder, The Kooks, Kasabian, Sigur Rós, Jester, The Feeling, The Futureheads, The Go! Team, The Automatic, Paolo Nutini and Lily Allen. Irish acts to appear included Bell X1, Damien Dempsey, Republic of Loose, Director, The Marshals, Sharon Shannon, The Blizzards, The Divine Comedy, Gemma Hayes and Humanzi.
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.