Festival goers descend on Oxegen

Even with more than 24 hours to go before the first bands took to the festival stages, fans began to trickle into the Oxegen campsitse at Punchestown Racecourse at lunchtime today.

Thousands of festival goers are expected to arrive at the Co Kildare venue today ahead of the weekend festival which officially gets underway at 2pm tomorrow when the New York City rock act Fun Lovin Criminals open proceedings on the main stage.

The car parks and campsites opened at noon today and a park and ride service began at Goffs off the M7 at 1.30pm.

AA Roadwatch is expecting the heaviest traffic tomorrow as campers make their way there

Those arriving early will not be left idle. A funfair will be up and running in the blue campsite as well as a stage featuring a host of tribute acts tonight such as Man in the Mirror, a tribute to Michael Jackson, Legend, a tribute to Bob Marley and Definitely MightBe, an Oasis tribute band.

Once the festival kicks into full swing tomorrow, those in attendance will be able to see acts such as Black Eyed Peas, The Strokes, Leftfield, The Script, Weezer and Calvin Harris.

Beyonce, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Artic Monkeys, Paolo Nutini, Deadmau5, Slash, The National, Primal Scream and even Amanda Brunker are among the artists performing across the five Oxegen stages on Saturday and Sunday.

Brunker was a late addition to the prime 2pm slot on Saturday afternoon after British singer Jessie J was forced to pull out because of a broken foot. She will duet with Gitano, a band fronted by Irish-based Spanish guitarist Francisco Garcia on the Vodafone stage, the second biggest at the festival.

Her addition raised a few eyebrows but the model cum writer was bullish about her prospects for the show despite being “no Beyonce”.

“I know people think this is a joke, but it is not at all,” she said.

“As far as I’m concerned, there are always people out there who want to have a go. At the end of the day I don’t like to just talk about doing things. I like to go out and do things,” added Brunker, who won the slot after contacting MCD boss Denis Desmond having recorded a number of songs.

Met Éireann is predicting showers or longer spells of rain with temperatures no higher than 17 degrees today and the bad weather, which has become part and parcel of the Oxegen experience is likely to continue.

Heavy and even thundery showers are expected to accompany temeratures of about 18 degrees tomorrow.

Thankfully the forecast for Saturday and Sunday looks more promising with Met Éireann saying both days should “a lot drier than of late” with some lighty scattered showers and temperatures rising to 20 degrees.

There have been a number of additions to the site this year most notably campsite bars for the first time at off-licence prices and Heineken, the main festival sponsors, will be providing cold rooms for their products.

Three and four day camping tickets were still available through the Oxegen website today priced €224.50 and €244.50 respectively.