Oxegen cancelled for 2012
Jim Carroll
The elephant in the room has finally made an announcement about its future plans: there will be no Oxegen in 2012. Per MCD PR supremo Justin Green, “Oxegen, like Glastonbury, is taking a year off in 2012 and will be back July 2013″. Sadly there was no mention of our old friend “unforeseen circumstances”, which has had a quiet year when it comes to getting togged out to provide excuses for this kind of thing. As regular OTR readers know, we predicted this back in July.
Six questions to mull over about this news: will the cancellation have any effect on the thousands of Stone Roses and Red Hot Chili Pepper tickets still on sale? Will MCD get to put the second Stone Roses’ gig they’re believed to be holding for the Phoenix Park on sale or have to yank it (by the way, the capacity for the Phoenix Park shows now turns out to be 45,000 not the 36,000 initially mentioned)? Will MCD schedule another camping festival for 2012 or will the Oxegen kids have to find other ways to amuse themselves next year? Are there any friendly UK or US agents who’d like to let us know if any of their acts are on hold for such an event? Does this news mean some other promoter might jump into the breach or is it too late to book a rake of acts for summer 2012? And finally, will Oxegen return to Punchestown or even return at all? We’ll miss it….won’t we?
Can we speculate who the seven might be? Roses, obviously. Rihanna?
Rihanna, Coldplay, Blur, Gaga,
Radiohead??
All speculation on who might be playing the other Phoenix Park shows can be made at http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2011/12/22/details-on-mcds-phoenix-park-concerts/
Aside from wondering where the ruffians who attended are going to end up, there’s another important demographic we’re forgetting about – one which mainly lurks behind the scenes and makes the show happen. For suppliers and others involved in event production and management, a gig like Oxegen was all their annual paychecks in one go, so there will be a lot of sound and lighting companies, riggers, roadies, stage crew, drivers, fencing people, toilet specialists (at least those unwilling to accept the Queen’s pound), catering companies and many more, including people who wear headsets for a living, looking into the New Year quite upset that Oxegen is gone.
I’m not upset, obviously, Dinny needed to press the ‘refresh’ button on it years ago.