Oxegen
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 as green-washing. 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.
This article is about the music festival held in Ireland. For the chemical element, see oxygen.Oxegen
2004–2011; 2013
Oxegen.ie (archived)
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 McCann short 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]
Facilities[edit]
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 years. 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]
2012 hiatus[edit]
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 Roses Reunion 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]