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Oxegen

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Oxegen
225px
Location(s) County Kildare, Ireland
Years active 2004 - present
Date(s) 8th and 9th July
Genre(s) Rock
Image:Oxegen Logo2.png

Oxegen is a yearly music festival, the first of which occurred in 2004, sponsored by Heineken. It was previously called Witnness, which ran from 2000 and was sponsored by Guinness. It takes place at the Punchestown Racecourse, Co. Kildare, Republic of Ireland and has an average attendance of around 80,000 a day, with around half of these camping on site for the duration, and the rest travelling to the site each day. MCD run the festival.

While Oxegen has not yet reached the iconic status of Glastonbury, it still manages to attract a large number of acts each year.

As well as six stages of music, there are two large areas for camping which are numerically subdivided. There are also stalls and shops all around the enclosed area, and toilet areas. Critics often note that these toilet facilities are not nearly adequate to satisfy the large crowds. However, in 2006 heated showers were added.

There is also a Funfair featuring a big wheel and other rides, such as the "Magic Carpet", the Big Drop, and the roller coaster although at the 2004 festival these cost an extra €5 each and in 2006, the price rose to €8 per ride.

For the most part, its lineup is identical to that of T in the Park, which runs on the same weekend, but in Scotland. TITP has a longer history and a smaller site, meaning that it sells out quicker, and many acts play Oxegen on the day that they're not playing TITP.

Contents

[edit] 2004 Festival

The Darkness, The Cure, The Strokes, Kings of Leon, PJ Harvey, Divine Comedy, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters, Muse, Faithless, Massive Attack, Basement Jaxx, Chemical Brothers, Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol, Orbital, The Complete Stone Roses and Cartoon are some of the bands that played at the 2004 festival. The Killers and Razorlight were among the bands headlining the New Band Stage. Tickets sold out a week before the event.

[edit] 2005 Festival

Green Day, Foo Fighters, New Order, James Brown, The Prodigy, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Frames, Keane, Audioslave, Feeder, The Killers, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, The Bravery, Nine Black Alps, The Departure, Razorlight, LCD Soundsystem, Echo & the Bunnymen, The La's, The Revs and Snoop Dogg are some of the acts that played on Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10. The Magic Numbers, Editors, Republic of Loose, Humanzi and Director were among the bands that played on the New Band Stage. A limited number of tickets went on sale in December 2004 at a discount price and quickly sold out, the main bulk of tickets went on sale in February, costing €150 for a Weekend with a camping pass, €125 for a weekend without a camping pass and €67 for a day pass for either day. The tickets finally sold out on 3 June, six weeks prior to the event. There was no serious trouble with less than 100 arrests for drug offences, generally for possession of cannabis. However, the hot weather on Sunday did result in some severe sun-stroke for some revellers.

[edit] 2006 Festival

Image:Main stage at Oxegen 2006.jpg

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 first acts (The Who, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs) were officially announced.

Following a 1 week presale in late February, tickets went onsale to the general public 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 hours, leaving many fans disappointed. Growing popularity among younger audiences, massive MTV (UK and Ireland) coverage of the festival, and tickets being on sale for a much longer length of time were said to have been some the reasons for the festival selling out earlier than usual. A small number of tickets went on sale on July 4, 2006 but quickly sold out.

The festival itself will perhaps best be remembered for its weather which eclipsed previous records. However following intense rains and stormy conditions on the Saturday (reported to have been the worst in the history of the festival), the weather began to improve by Sunday afternoon with sunny skies and a gentle breeze.

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In the 2006 festival, The Ticket Stage was re-branded as the NME Stage, MTV sponsored the Dance Arena instead of the Main Stage, and the Pet Sounds Stage was added to the festival. The Pet Sounds stage was on the Saturday night unexpectedly headlined by Kasabian who had remained unannounced as an official act in the lead up to the festival. The New Band Stage, Green Room and Bacardi B-Live Arena all returned. The Green Room increased in size, while the Dance Arena was moved to an indoor venue. The MTV/VH1 live tent, located backstage at the 2005 festival was moved into the main festival area. 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 clearly too small for them and their army of fans, as well as the Strokes rousing performance on Saturday evening as festival-goers danced to the Main Stage when the first riffs of "Last Nite" were ejaculated into the night sky. 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.

The campsite did have a makeshift stage, made out of cardboard, tents, clothes and bags, on the early hours of the Saturday night/Sunday morning called "The Trumpet Stage". It was for anyone who wanted to get up to perform any songs they wanted with just an acoustic guitar could. Most notably roadies from UK band The Kooks and musician Rob Smith. The "stage" lasted just under half and hour before being destroyed.

Image:Oxegententfire.jpg

[edit] Controversy at 2006 Festival

Security arrangements at Oxegen were criticised as being poor, to the point where those at the concert felt unsafe by some of the media. One concert goer, Sophie Merry, said: "I feared for my life when we were there. If my boyfriend hadn't been there I wouldn't have stayed in the tent with another girl. We wouldn't have been safe... It was like a third-world country."

Another patron said that "ironically, I had a great laugh at the jumping around to the Kaiser Chiefs as they played their hit "I Predict a Riot". But I don't think even they could have predicted the trouble that broke out later that night." He added that "we spent the whole night huddled in our tent in fear for our safety." while other festival goers commented on the security being more than adequate, "the Chilis rocked, told us to have a good night so going to go back now, get our drinks and head to our neighbours tent for a while, (to) see what the craic is"

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There were 225 arrests for drugs (with 13 charged for possession with intent to supply), and the Evening Herald reports 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. Due to few reports of any serious violence at Oxegen, and the lack of statements from Gardai, security or Naas general hospital to back up the claims made in the media, the event still manages to hold its well earned status.

The campsite proved troublesome in 2006, with reports of widespread 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.

At present, the previously lively official forum remains shut down, presumably as a result of postings on the message board which would generate negative publicity for the event. As Internet users reported on the event at boards.ie, Ireland's largest web-based discussion forum, MCD proceeded to press for legal action to prevent such postings from surfacing.

[edit] Boards.ie sued by MCD

In response to negative postings about the festival on boards.ie, MCD sent a letter via their solicitors to the administrators of the site threatening legal action. As a result, the administrators were forced to ban all discussion of MCD and related events. As of Friday 11th August, MCD had entered into legal proceedings against boards.ie for comments regarding Oxegen on their discussion forums. Mention of any MCD event - including any of its stage concerts throughout the country - continues to be banned on boards.ie. Discussion of its venues, The Ambassador and The Olympia Theatre, is also prohibited.

The Irish Independent were also threatened with legal action on their coverage of the Oxegen festival. Justin Green of MCD told the paper: "We must warn you that in the event that an article critical of the event is published, we will take whatever action is necessary to prevent damage to the Oxegen event or MCD Productions."

Because of MCD's legal threats, many bloggers and Internet discussion board users believe the incidents at Oxegen were under-reported in the Irish media. Liberal web magazine Indymedia referred to MCD as "burying" the discussion. The review section of the Sunday Tribune dated August 20, 2006 featured extensive coverage of the situation to date [1] (registration required).

[edit] 2006 Line-up

The main acts that played the festival:

Saturday 8th July

Main Stage

NME Stage

Pet Sounds Stage

Sunday 9th July

Main Stage

NME Stage

Pet Sounds Stage

Other acts included:

Image:Oxegen 07.jpg

[edit] 2007 Festival

Image:Current event marker.svg This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

Oxegen 2007 has been confirmed and will take place at Punchestown Racecourse on Saturday July 7 and Sunday July 8. Tickets will go on general sale at 9am on Saturday March 3 2007. Prices will be announced at a later date. As in 2006, it will be 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.

The line-up will be announced in late February. If previous years are anything to go by the festival will share many of its bands with T in the Park.

While MCD's Justin Green said that he was "ecstatic with the success of the event [in 2006], as are the Gardaí and Kildare County Council," questions arise over security and safety for patrons of the festival. MCD has not announced that it will take precautions against the serious anti-social behaviour seen in 2006, nor has it detailed the exact security staffing of the 2006 festival which could have allowed them to happen. This will be a matter of concern for 2007 and future years.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Oxegen"
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