Keeping us all updated for the whole weekend at Oxegen was the ever active @Healium. Ian Healy was good enough to give us his look back at Oxegen 2009.
- Darren
On Campsites;
We stayed in blue and had no problems, got to know the neighbours and watched each others backs, definetily helped. Red camp looked a lot better but I know people who got their tents slashed there,so….
From L-R; Marie in the background, Stuart and Cozzie
We were around B32/ B33 and were close to the headphone disco, both Centra’s, toilets, food etc. and it worked out great! Being central really helps when you’re tired and hungover!
On Music;
Quite an eclectic line-up which was great. The headliners were pretty brutal and I found myself rarely going to the Main Stage to see anybody. There were some very under-rated bands which deserved a better spot on the line-up
Some of the clashes were absolutely brutal like Blur/Deadmau5/2 Many Dj’s and Florence/ Jane’s Addiction which kinda sucked, but it could have been worse
The Thursday night stage was really fun and as cheesy as the cover bands are, everybody knows the songs!
I ventured to the Xbox Live stage once or twice and we had a lot of fun. Many a late night rave was had there!
The headphone disco, I’m not quite sure about. I went two nights; one was great, the other was dire. Still, the novelty rocks
On Food;
Bring something with you! Even some bread and cereal bars! If you buy everything there, its going to be expensive. Centra is reasonable enough, but the food in the arena is massively overpriced in general. I found that if you shop around, you can find some bargains. In one place, a slice of pizza is €5, whereas you can get a full pizza for €10 somewhere else
Nice variety of food but I just found myself getting chips etc. every day
On Weather;
This year, the weather seemed to be extremely fickle. Showers came out of nowhere, and after them, came this;
Basically, get a decent tent and a rain coat just in case! I need not even mention wellies because this is as dry as its gonna get;
How you were wrong, Una! She surely drowned in mud. RIP.
On Twitter;
Twitter is a valuable resource at Oxegen and you can be easily and quickly alerted to something major happening. I thought the @oxegen09 thing was a great idea, but there wasn’t enough time given to tweets on the big screen
And for the love of god, bring spare phone batteries if you’re a mobile tweeter like me!
On the toilets;
They’re not THAT manky...I was only disgusted once or twice over the weekend. Look around for a clean one! And toilet roll is a must
On Rubbish;
Keep a bin bag, people! There’s a serious lack of bins, but when you dump anywhere, you get this!
…and this….
….and some of this….
On Random Fun;
Lots of random fun to be had!
If somebody wants a hi-5, give it!
If somebody throws mud, throw back!
If somebody kicks a ball, then you had better chase it!
And, if you see the guy coming towards me, RUN! He gives muddy hugs
On the soccer match;
Great idea, there should be more events like this, especially on the Thursday to keep people entertained and let people get to know each other. It was a great start to the Friday
On the whole festival;
I must give credit where its due and MCD redeemed themselves. I hadn’t a single problem over the weekend and it was very well organised. Well done!
On people;
You’ll find that the majority of people are dead on, and won’t cause you any hassle. There can be great camraderie at Oxegen once you’re nice to people. You never know when you might need a favour from somebody; short on toilet roll or dry on vodka, so don’t be a dick.
Make friends outside of your own little group; With so many people, there’s no point in having a sheltered experience. As much as it is for the music, it’s for socialising; we ended up with a lovely bunch from Roscommon
L-R; Stephen, Kayt, Beckiiii, Ashy and Erin
Funny thing is, 4/5 in that picture are from Tipperary…
Also, can I just say, Kayt was on the phone to Fight Like Apes and she didn’t know who Pockets was…
You will get some dickheads, especially at gigs, and sometimes you’ll get something like this from out of nowhere
I found it hilarious that they thought they’d actually show this on the big screen
No need to be hatin’ at Oxegen, James. Now look what you’ve made me do
Yup, deaf, uncaring ears.
To summarise;
….was amazing! It took me until Sunday to figure it out, but phwoar!
Roll on ’10!
You can read a day-by-day break-down here:
And, Full-length reviews on:
Nine Inch Nails/ Jane’s Addiction
Aaaaand, you can follow me on Twitter here
Cheers!
- Ian
Woo!
Dose this mean I’m famous?
Best oxegen review iv seen so far, keep up the good work
Ha. Fair play to ya. Emmet will be wicked excited.
Cheers Stephen! yeah,you can be famous….Sure i gave Emmet swine flu in the car lastnight! He’ll be too sick!
Ha ya. Still no sign of the memo stick. It must have been lost in silent hill.
I love the random,casual conversation we’re having here
Great little review there Ian. It was an easy read. Much easier than your torrentially long daily reviews on your blog.
You dun like dem there pitchers? hyuck hyuck
A conversation for everybody to see what better way to do it.
lmao…ian thats amazing!!!truest thng iv read bwt oxegen09so far…i dnt even rem that pik bein taken..lol..!!!