PREVIEW:SO THIS is what it has come to for the modern open air three-day rock festival goer - free hot showers, dance and drum workshops, convenience stores, beauty parlours, lockers, mobile composting toilets, on-site post boxes, a funfair, Moroccan marquees (presided over, we are informed via a press release from event organisers MCD, "by a staff of poets, performers and people that just like to dress up"), an upgraded Bluetooth service, podpads, teepees and food villages (whatever they are).
Clearly, anyone travelling to Oxegen who desperately wants to experience a bona fide grubby, smelly, hungry, unwelcoming and generally loathsome experience could stumble away sorely disappointed. Either that, or else there's just no pleasing people.
Yes, Oxegen is back, and this year it's with us for three days/nights instead of the usual two (with the campsite gates opening yesterday at noon). Such an upgrade warrants attention, and perhaps places in the shade the negative comments that the event has garnered over the past couple of years on various blogs and websites.
You have to ask yourself the following questions: if it was such a hateful experience, then why did the three-day event sell out in jig time? The obvious answer is that there is a growing audience and a substantial appetite for an event that is fast approaching the status (but not, say its critics, the quality) of a Glastonbury festival equivalent in Ireland.
Plus, let us not forget the rite-of-passage aspect to the event; for the Transition Year teenager (and more besides), Oxegen is the rock'n'roll festival to attend if you fancy giving the reversed victory salute to your parents regarding potential - we stress the word "potential" - access to alcohol, sex and drugs.
In the latter area, the promoters and authorities are staunchly and proactively vigilant as to the presence of illicit substances. Frankly, you'd want to be an idiot of the highest order to risk being arrested by an undercover member of the Drugs Squad for the sake of a sneaky puff of a dodgy joint or the purchase of a pill that could contain anything from saccharine to strychnine. Alcohol and sex? Well, we're all human, aren't we, and let those who have not sinned cast the first stone, etc.
First and foremost, though, Oxegen is about the music, and this year is easily the best line-up of the event's history. Friday's proceedings start at about 5pm and sees acts of the calibre of Battles, Ben Folds, Interpol, Liam Finn, Editors, BellX1, White Denim, Calvin Harris, Tricky and Main Stage headliners Kings of Leon. Saturday is exhaustive by comparison: concert-goers can take their pick from acclaimed new(ish) acts such as Blood Red Shoes, The Japanese Popstars, Ida Maria, Alphabeat, The Ting Tings and The Enemy to well-established acts such as The National, Manic Street Preachers, Feeder, The Prodigy, The Verve and main stage headliners REM.
You'd be mistaken if you considered Sunday a day of rest. Before you've even got time for a lie-in followed by, God forbid, a hot shower, along comes the likes of Glasvegas, Roisin Murphy, The Pogues, The Hold Steady, The Courteeners, The Raconteurs, The Blizzards, The Fratellis, Kaiser Chiefs, Chemical Brothers and the regrouped Rage Against the Machine, the main stage headliners.
If you love denizens of the animal kingdom, then we'd like to direct you towards the likes of Jaguar Love, The Wombats, Fight Like Apes, The Pigeon Detectives, Counting Crows, Band of Horses, Aslan (Turkish for "lion"), Cat Power, Noah and the Whale and - last but not least - Echo and the Bunnymen.
Friday's headline act, Kings of Leon, are looking forward to it, even if the parents of Ireland might not be. Jared Followill, the band's bass player, told The Irish Timesthat Ireland is one of his favourite places to play. "The Irish are definitely a lot more rowdy. I love everything about Ireland, and when we go there we usually try to schedule a game of golf. Last year Oxegen was great, I love that festival. My family loved Thin Lizzy. As far as the people are concerned they seem down to earth; it almost seems like home as far as attitude goes. They're overly nice, like we are."
For all the latest news on Oxegen visit www.oxegen.ie
