Oxygone

corm500

Posted this morning on the Oxegen website

It is with regret that MCD announce that OXEGEN will not take place this year due to lack of suitable Headline Acts which combined with the financial demands by local agencies make it no longer viable to stage the Festival in its current form.

Won't be missed by me anyhow. It had turned into a terrible dance/pop festival

GarIT

corm500 wrote: »

Won't be missed by me anyhow. It had turned into a terrible dance/pop festival

I'll miss it, last year was the best festival I've ever been to.

cson

EP will now become Oxegen unfortunately.

ghostdancer

cson wrote: »

EP will now become Oxegen unfortunately.

it didn't in 2012 when Oxegen was cancelled....

lc180

cson wrote: »

EP will now become Oxegen unfortunately.

Because Oxegen goers are mad for a bit of Portishead and Beck? Just cant see it happening.

Titzon Toast

Bring back Witness!

SamAK

Life festival is where it's at for me!

Must get myself to Body&Soul sometime as well..

Big festivals like Oxegen tend to have a completely different vibe compared to smaller events. More security, more fences, more advertising.

Some of the best festivals i've been to have had 5k capacity or less..

bodhrandude

Sure the Irish if they want a camping music festival still in July its just a matter of booking a Ryanair flight to Scotland and going to T in the Park.

bodhrandude

Any festival that puts Amanda Brunker on the main stage on Saturday deserves to fail.

aka accounts 2010

Must say it was a great weekend in its early days. I've been to all with the exception of 2007 and 2013 (didn't go in 2013 due to the obvious change and horrendous line up).

The change in crowds in 2010/2011 was unbelievable. It turned from an enjoyable weekend with a great atmosphere and top line up into a weekend where the line up was still top quality (in terms of big names) but the crowd demographic was such that you sensed trouble all over the site!!

Shame really!

Furious-Red

Yea i went 2006-2011 and did notice things had changed its a pity because for me 2008 was my favourite one as the line up was brilliant and the atmosphere was great.

As people said EP will not become the new Oxegensince its a totally different line up type.

Stil would love to see a proper rock festival but i shall not hold my breath

Custardpi

In other news, shares in the manufacturers of Dutch Gold & Wkd look set to plunge when stock markets reopen.....

SamAK

Furious-Red wrote: »

Stil would love to see a proper rock festival but i shall not hold my breath

Whatever happened to Ozzfest?

Or was that just a once off? I was there when I was a kid....can't remember when but Tool played and Ozzy never turned up.

oak5548

ghostdancer wrote: »

it didn't in 2012 when Oxegen was cancelled....

Exactly. It wont effect EP at all, but the gigantic amount of negative people on here will never let it go.

Duff

Went to Oxegen 2006-2010 and always had a great weekend. Fond memories of having to be pulled out of the crowd at The Strokes because I was being crushed to death in '06 and nearly dying of hypothermia at Daft Punk in '07. Shame to see it go but it seriously went downhill after 2010.

Kerplunk124

Many many great memories of the place
I went in 09,10 and 11 and always had a great time. especially 2010 when we stupidly decided to camp right at the fence beside that nokia live stage in the blue camp. got **** all sleep that weekend but man it was great fun

Furious-Red

Mr.S wrote: »

2011 was the last time I went, was pretty **** watching acts on huge stages to a handful of people. They should have downscaled the year before.

Crowd was shocking that year too, it was the only year we had stuff stolen from us while we slept, the security did 0 and they said they saw the guys go into our tents (we where beside a watch tower) and saw them run off but they didn't do anything, the mind boggles.

Same , i remember watching Weezer/Jimmy Eat World and looking at the size of the crowd was ****. Then about 500 people watching The National while Beyonce was on(they would have been better off closing the other stages while she was on )

Also having the strokes on before SHM?? on the 2nd stage was crazy and then Black Eyed Peas headlining the main stage .

Didnt help repeating headliners 2 years in a row(KOL technically played 3 years back to back but headlined 2 in a row) and then Black Eyed Peas doing 2nd stage in 2010 then main 2011

BadTurtle

Went 05-09 and it was great. Daft Punk, NIN, Rage, Muse, QOTSA still some of my favourite gigs ever.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Great news, hopefully some of the better acts that would have been sucked into that scrotefest will get better placed gigs in the summers here now

Liam92

The 2011 Oxegen wasn't the best really. I remember being at My Chemical Romance at the main stage and a crowd was non-existent really, which must have pissed them off considering they headlined Reading a month later and a crowd must have been expected.

MCD got some great headliners and acts but unfortunately the demographic and the general atmosphere definitely changed over the years I attended. Perhaps MCD should just create a new festival next year in the style of V Festival and cater for a more mainstream audience.

bennyl10

After last years God awful lineup, not surprised it's,gone.. Went in 2011 and was shocked with the crowd size, particularly on the Friday with MCR, Weezer and the script.. Crowd was tiny..

Would love if festival Rep and MCD brought a reading/Leeds style fest here.. Mix of genres, but predominantly rock based would surely sell..

bennyl10

Mr.S wrote: »

Oxegen was basically that, was it not?

If they scaled back the festival to ~50,000 and got rid of half the stages, it might have a chance.

But with Longitude and EP i'd doubt they would take the risk.

Shame.

in.the early years, but latter they seemed to.move more towards edm and damxe.. (look at beyonce, BEP, SHM all headlining)..

Scaling it back is also much needed..
Could easily lose lattitude.. not even camping.. and put the headliners on gigs at phoenix or marlay.

windowcleaner

Good piece by Jim Carrol here about its demise

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2014/04/22/no-oxegen-left-in-the-tank/

Looper007

Not surprised really, you could tell the most of the audience weren't there for the music rather to get drunk and cause a little havoc with their mates in the last few years, basically a let of a lease from the parents to act the drunken wallies. I remember going in the last few years, where most people didn't even leave the camping site at all but stayed and got drunk and had music blaring from their tents. It was just the cool thing to say you were there even though most of the music on the card wasn't their thing, that's why Beyoncé and Black Eyed peas type of acts were been added in later years to please those people.

I was there with the 500 or so audience for The National, although the crowd and band did make the best out of it. I knew then that Oxygen was in trouble. In it's early years it was amazing and had a good and interesting crowd who were there to have fun and listen to music. But from 2006 onwards, you could see a more violent element was slowly steeping in and the fun vibes were taken out for me the last year I was there in 2011, I couldn't wait for the whole thing to end.

the blunder years

I remember hearing The National on the radio that day, they sounded absolutely wrecked could have been the 18 months of touring didn't realise the crowds was that tiny. Booking them against Beyonce was crazy though

Never went to Oxygen but my mates loved it when they were in their teens but moved on to Electric Picnic as they got older. Longitude got rave reviews, I think the weather helped plus no camping probably cuts down on anti social behaviour.

Oxygen biggest problem I think by the end it didn't know what kind of festival it wanted to be, just a random smattering of bands. Plus bigger shows/festivals don't seem to sell out or as often in Ireland anymore, could be wrong on that. Things seem more niche and eclectic regarding festivals.

Titzon Toast

It fell to pieces towards the end alright, but it was some craic when it first started.
I always loved the anticipation, the journey, gathering up all your stuff and hitting the road. Then when you got there the night before and everyone was milling about all fresh and in great form you'd hear a huge roar cascading across the campsite toward you like an audible Mexican wave, and you'd join in when it reached you and carried on behind you.
I swear, you'd only be fit for hospital after a weekend session down there.
Good times!

AdMMM

I'll miss the line ups that Oxegen was able to attract, but I won't miss the experience, that's for sure.

Looper007

the blunder years wrote: »

Never went to Oxygen but my mates loved it when they were in their teens but moved on to Electric Picnic as they got older. Longitude got rave reviews, I think the weather helped plus no camping probably cuts down on anti social behaviour.

I do think coming along took away the over 20's crowd away plus it was a lot more laid back and fun like Oxygen was in it's early years. Longitude certainly helps too that it's slap bang in Dublin meaning if you live there you can just get a bus home or if you visting you can get a hotel, B&B etc.. and a lot of the acts ain't chart topper's meaning you cut back on a slightly dodgier crowd.

celica00

can't believe it's cancelled again

StaticAge11

Goodbye and good riddance. Went to 3 of the last 4 years (09,10 and 11). The decline in the quality of music acts and increase in idiotic crowds just ruined what could have been a decent weekend. Going from quality headliners like Muse, Foo Fighters and Blur to the tribe of Black Eyed Peas, Calvin Harris etc just showed how far the festival had fallen. All culminated in getting attacked by some scumbags after Foo Fighters back in 2011. Biggest regret I have is actually spending money going to that festival, under the pretence that "next year will be better"

Furious-Red

Yea the massive direction switch seriously backfired in the end . MCD deserve it in the end . If you look how well it was doing till about 2008/2009 pretty much sell outs then they decide to start changing things . Even with a fairly good line up (whether you like them or not) 2011 with 4 big headliner draws in FF/Coldplay/Beyonce/Arctic Monkeys (and only 2 actually headlined Oxegen)

Also i think in the end it kinda felt they would just book acts just for the sake of it .Also i feel that the average rock/indie genre fan would be more willing to actually go to a festival instead of fan maybe who is more into EDM/pop music would rather go to 1 day gigs

Looper007

Furious-Red wrote: »

Yea the massive direction switch seriously backfired in the end . MCD deserve it in the end . If you look how well it was doing till about 2008/2009 pretty much sell outs then they decide to start changing things . Even with a fairly good line up (whether you like them or not) 2011 with 4 big headliner draws in FF/Coldplay/Beyonce/Arctic Monkeys (and only 2 actually headlined Oxegen)

Also i think in the end it kinda felt they would just book acts just for the sake of it .Also i feel that the average rock/indie genre fan would be more willing to actually go to a festival instead of fan maybe who is more into EDM/pop music would rather go to 1 day gigs

I think the prices going up and making it a three day Festival was a mistake, during downturn in Jobs and such meaning no one could afford three days or even two. Adding in too many chart Dance Friendly and pop acts did put off the audience that went before. I really think it became a "Hip" thing to be at for 17/18/19 year old kids who probably weren't into any of music but to post pictures on their Facebook, acting like muppets when they are drunk just to say they were there. Will it happen to Electric Pinic, only time will tell.

It started feeling less Friendly around 2009, when the security wasn't as tight, the audience were getting a little drunker and violent, the acts became less interesting. Maybe that's just me but from that year onwards it was less fun.

raven136

Its a pity really.

There is an audience for dance/edm gigs here no doubt just not an audience willing to go to a badly run festival

iForgetMyPW

It's a shame I had the time of my life in 2011 (some weekend). I was on holiday last August so I couldn't go but I definitely would of going even though the music wasn't exactly to my liking.

Non of these other gigs in Ireland compare, I guess I will have to save up for a festival in UK. Why did they have to destroy it with making all these separate gigs. It got some bad press but I saw no trouble, sure I met my gf at it