Snow Patrol melt hearts at Live Mud

Review:It is never an easy one to pin down, this Oxegen lark. In general, it is all things to all people, a giant smorgasbord of many musical delights that rarely fail to interest and engage.

More specifically, it is a treat for the music fan to venture beyond the major name acts that have probably visited Ireland before. Major acts are great for the illuminated mobile phone moments, but if we want to experience new and rising acts, then a festival such as Oxegen is a perfect fit - it's big enough to miss some of them, of course, but it's compact enough to trudge through sludge to get to the acts you really want to see.

It's best to be strategic about it, which is why any review of Oxegen can never be fully comprehensive.

So we pick and choose, walk around a bit, have a gourmet burger and a Bacardi Breezer, invite foot rot into our life by negotiating a path across to the New Band/Futures tent to check out the likes of Cherry Ghost and Tokyo Police Club.

The former is the umbrella title for a singer-songwriter from the north of England, a soft-spoken guy who manages to make meat of cliches; some of his songs come across like fully formed pop/rock epics, which isn't bad going for a guy and a guitar.

Tokyo Police Club, meanwhile, are a tight little unit, all fast songs and dynamism, that manage to hold dear to the concept of excitement without causing undue danger.

Over on the Main Stage, Canadian pop/punk (we use each term loosely) singer Avril Lavigne put up a good enough show of bolshy bravado to win over the more tolerant .

An act far more substantial (in every sense of word) is The Gossip, who played the NME Stage mid-Saturday afternoon. The Gossip's lead singer, Beth Ditto, is a formidable presence and a highly-entertaining front woman. The songs are taut rock'n'roll/old school R&B, and Ditto belts them out like a trouper.

Perhaps the true troupers of Saturday are Snow Patrol, who jetted in from London's Live Earth event to play the Main Stage. Still coming to terms with their long-awaited but relatively new-found success, they are received like heroes.

Muse, topping the Main Stage bill around midnight, may have strafed the crowd with flashing lights and sci-fi images, but Snow Patrol lovebombed them with terrific songs, the best example a brilliantly simple Chasing Cars. A touching final moment (singer Gary Lightbody dedicated it to his soon-to-be-born nephew or niece) to a mostly dry but incredibly muddy day.