Oxegen!
Off we set from sunny Dublin on Friday afternoon to arrive in the rain at Punchestown to be told by Gardai that there was no parking available in any of the car parks and that we had to travel back to Goffs and get the shuttle bus. After a brief roadside meeting we headed for a different entrance to sneak our way past and sure enough, we were in but weren't quite sure what lay ahead of us in terms of mud. Que 5 min later and we were in the thick of it, literally.
Enough about that because it was time for Goldfrapp, the lady that is. We would love to write more than one line about this woman of whom we have the utmost respect for but unfortunately there was a certain backing track being played behind her vocals for every song. Ragefog. David Guetta blew us away, the man’s got talent people and ended up being one of our festival highlights.
Off we tread back to our campervan via the main stage for Jay-Z and yes he delivered in a big way in terms of vocals and staging but we couldn't quite get past the fact that the man is singing about the hardship in Brooklyn in a field beside Naas, just not our cup of tea but kudos all the same.
A lovely night lay ahead of us wrapped up in our campervan. What’s wrong with this sentence I hear you ask, well, it was 5am when we awoke first to the sound of a man’s arm in our window trying to rob us, there was about 2.5 seconds of silence before we started to scream like two school girls. Eventually he left us alone and we were able to crawl back into bed with the fear so we slept with one eye open for the rest of the night and for good reason as it was only an hour later that we peered out to see a group of people having a bare knuckle fight. Ample morning entertainment it was not.
Day 2 arrived and it was full steam ahead. You have to give it to the Oxegen punters, we had never seen muck like it but they were out in full force with not a care in the world. Our neighbouring campers had the right idea in bringing a kettle in their van, heating water and putting it into a watering can that acted as a portable shower.
Today was going to be our day, we could feel it. It wasn’t long before we had blagged an interview with Fight like Apes who were ultimate legends ending the interview with a kart wheel none the less. From here we bombarded our way onto the Ray Foley Fun Bus for a chat with the man himself, another ledgebag and a man with a story or two and from there we popped along to see Bitches with Wolves who played the Dance Arena, this show isn’t for the faint hearted with chants of a devious nature from frontman Jame O’Neill. We’re pretty sure we still have a few sequins lodged in our eyes, think Roisin Murphy garb.
Blag Blag Blag was our motto which ended up getting us on stage for a performance by Hot Chip who wooed the crowed with their electropop madness, this being another massive highlight of our weekend. Now, can we hear a MUSE! These boys really have mastered the art of festival performances belting out hits new and old with an amazing light show. Whoop whoop.
This was the end of the road for us, Oxegen you came, we saw and you delivered in a massive, massive way. This really is the only festival in Ireland that delivers on such a massive scale even if we did get robbed.
It’s a 9 rashers out of ten from us docking one point for security issues, get it in order lads.
Yours in comedown hell from a MASSIVE weekend, say massive again.
Colm & Martin
Posted: 13/07/2010 15:16:21 by
Colm & Martin
Filed under: Festivals, FightLikeApes, Oxegen, Rashers, Colm+Martin