OXEGEN!!

I made it back to the apartment all in one piece thankfully and took a much needed nap after being awake some 30 hours. So I’ll start at the beginning on Friday.

Friday:

I stayed up late talking to an old friend on Skype, when I had meant to go to bed early in preparation for my trip. I called a cab that picked me up outside my apartment at 5:15am, and I knew I had started the trip off right when the cab turned out to be an A4 1.9 TDI. I got to the airport and everything on time and settled down for a nice traditional English breakfast (Sausage, Bacon, Eggs, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and baked beans). I got on the plane and set off for Dublin.

<---First view of Ireland

Dublin City Center--->

I arrived in Dublin at around 9am and had a few hours to kill before I could catch my bus to Punchestown Racetrack in a town called Naas (pronounced ‘nase’). I didn’t really want to take a bus tour so I just walked around a bit. I saw the famous Post Office in downtown Dublin where there are still bullet holes from the “uprising” many years ago.

I found my bus eventually to see a line 5 blocks long to get on the buses, but thankfully it went very fast. In fact, almost everything about OXEGEN was organized extremely well, from the bus system to recycling and food.
It was cloudy but dry when I arrived, having just my backpack full of essentials, so I went to pick up my tent that I ordered online from a place called Banana Joe’s that brings camping packs to big events such as OXEGEN.

I just picked a random place to pitch my tent and it just so happened to be near a group of guys from all over Ireland that were on the same Rugby team. They were so nice and helped me pitch my tent. I took a nap and then headed over to the concert with them.

At first I was pretty disappointed with the bands playing because I didn’t really know any of them. I ended up seeing Ladyhawk, Mogwai,2 Many Dj’s, Fun Lovin’ Criminals (who had an amazing guitarist), The Script, some of Lilly Allen, some of Pendulum, Snow Patrol, and Blur. Mogwai was a bit strange but, actually put on a really good show. At Snow Patrol (who was also really good) I met a couple new ‘mates’ and ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the night. We watched Blur (who was by far the best of the day) and then they brought me back to their campsite and introduced me to all of their friends and offered me food and such. I ended up sitting around their camp and talking with them about differences between America and Ireland till about 4am. It was really interesting to hear that all of them at one point or another say how lucky I was to live in America. They said that they would love to have the chance to live in America sometime. They said that America sounded somewhat scary though with all of those crazy Americans having guns.

I went back to my tent to get some sleep before the music started at around 2pm. I found that my canopy was missing from my tent so I had to use a poncho I found as a makeshift canopy to keep water out. I was tired, so it was really easy to sleep despite the pounding techno coming from the 4 carnival areas and headphone party just over the hill.

Saturday:

Saturday had the most bands that I was really excited to see so I got to the stages as soon as I woke up. Unfortunately it began to pour down rain and didn’t let up. The temperature was around 55-65 degrees throughout the weekend but the rain made it a bit chilly. I went to the Saw Doctors show first with my neighbors. They are more of a traditional Irish rock band, but they were decent. I then headed over to see The Game. The Game was a bit out of place at OXEGEN but nonetheless I was excited to see him. I found that one of my mates, Ross was actually obsessed with American rap and was much more excited than I about seeing Game.

We headed over early and squeezed our way to the front in the pouring rain. The crowd was actually unbelievable (They actually boo-ed the band before The Game and started chanting “GAME” and also for some reason ‘Whoop-there-it-is” by Tag-Team haha) Once the crowd was about to explode, they announced that Game would not be playing. The result was absolute mayhem, pushing, shoving, throwing bottles on stage, throwing mud. It was absolutely ridiculous. Soaked and tired, I then headed over to the new bands tent to see Passion Pit, Hockey, and Little Boots all in a row.

<---Hockey - Skeleton Boy

Hockey and Passion Pit collab--->

Passion Pit had me worried that their live show would be terrible and that I would be the only person in there, when in fact, they were incredible and the entire tent was packed. The entire crowd chanted every song and was pumped that they were there. Hockey came on next, whom I had only heard one song, but they were arguably better than Passion Pit, lead by an energetic front man who looks like AJ Lawson. During their last song, Passion Pit, who was watching from side-stage, ran in and joined in with the piano, guitar, and drums and the result was absolutely spectacular. Little Boots had a tough act to follow and didn’t quite make the cut, so I left to get something to eat after seeing her hit “Earthquake”.

I ran by the Red Bull tent and saw Crystal Castles who had the tent packed and dancing, and played several songs that I knew. I then headed over to see TV on the Radio, one of the bands I was most excited to see.

They started off a little slow, but they ended up doing an amazing job with “Wolf like me” and “Staring at the Sun”. I caught the ends of The Mars Volta and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and then headed over to see headliners Bloc Party and Kings of Leon.
Bloc Party was absolutely amazing, and they may very well be my favorite band right now. They played Flux, Banquet, Signs, Helicopter and a bunch of other hits. The lead singer has so much charisma that made it easy for him to win over the 80,000+ in attendance. In fact the totals for attendance and camping were more than 130,000 people! Kings of Leon were good as well, although not exactly my type of music, but the rest of Ireland absolutely LOVES them.

Sunday:

I woke up Sunday and finished the rest of my book "Taken" and then set out to hear some more music.

<---Ross somehow lost his 'trousers' and convinced these girls to give him theirs

My debit card somehow got shut off throughout the weekend, so I only had 5 Euros left to make it back to Dublin. I finished off the rest of my clementines and tea biscuits and headed to see Calvin Harris, who was just as good the second time around. Lady Gaga was next, and was amazingly horrible.

<---apparently Ross liked Lady Gaga though Haha

She played only 5 songs during her 45 minute set, and kept wandering off stage to change her dresses. I left a little into Paolo Nutini and went to see Friendly Fires, whom I didn’t know much about but was pleasantly surprised by their funky bass riffs fused with horns. I then saw a bit of Katy Perry and the Ting Tings and then went to the dance arena where MSTRKRFT was playing.

Entering the dance arena was like entering a crypt filled with undulating sweaty zombies with no shirts and incessantly spraying water into the air amidst wavering glowsticks. A dense cloud from the fog machines hung low over the crowd and an utterly spectacular laser show pulsed with the thundering bass. I arrived for the last few songs from Bloody Beetroots, who were very good. MSTRKRFT came on seamlessly during a collaboration with the ‘beetroots. MSTRKRFT played the hit “Easy Love” and got the crowd moving and then did my personal favorite, a remix of Justice – D.A.N.C.E.

I then headed out to pack my backpack back at the campsite. I met up with the Irish boys, whom I forgot to mention all loved the song "Country Roads" and would sing it whenever they saw me, and said my goodbyes. The previous night a strong wind had torn through the campsite and destroyed much of the surrounding area, leaving a wasteland of trash and broken tents, chairs, and food.

<---devastation after the wind and rain

My tent held up, with a good bit of water inside which I mopped up with my shirt, but the Irish boys tent was completely destroyed, so I left them my tent and sleeping bag which they were very grateful for. My hoody was completely soaked and I was still wearing my jeans and New Balance “trainers” that were completely covered in mud. So I went back to get warm and see a bit of Felix Da Housecat before the headliners came on. The Killers were on the main stage, while Jane’s Addiction and NIN were on the O2 stage. I watched a few songs of the Killers and then debated whether I should watch NIN or just catch the bus back to Dublin. Thankfully I stayed, because NIN, whom I had never paid any attention to were best described by the movie Almost Famous as “Incendiary” . Trent Reznor was absolutely stunning and completely won over the crowd and eventually began sucking the crowd from the Killers. Before his final song “Hurt” (recently covered by Johnny Cash) he announced that this would be one of NIN’s very last shows as they are moving on with their lives.
Thoroughly satisfied I trudged through the mud and got on the bus to Dublin. I met a nice group of people in the back of the bus who turned out to be Radio personalities in Dublin. We talked for a long time about what I was doing over in Dublin, how crazy I was to come to OXEGEN without any “mates”, the origin of my name, and many other things. When I got off the bus, they said that they would give me a quick tour of Dublin. So after midnight they took me around and told me as much Irish history as they could remember about the surrounding buildings and breweries and such. We went by the famous “porterhouse” pub but it was closed. They were extremely nice and gave me a water-bottle and payed for a bus-ride back to the airport for me since my bank card kept getting denied and I only had British Pounds and American Dollars. I gave them 20 pounds but they refused and sent me on my way with some candy bars. So many thanks to Owen, Nick, and Jenna!
I got to the airport with 1 Euro left and read all of my birthday wishes on a computer I found and then waited around until the gate opened for my plane.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend that I’ll never forget. Thanks to my parents for funding the Ireland trip, thanks to Ross, Justin, Chris and all the other Ireland boys for a fun birthday, thanks to Darran for giving me the opportunity to be over on this side of the world, and thanks to Owen, Nick, and Jenna for getting me to the airport!

Some interesting stuff about OXEGEN:
OXEGEN is 100% carbon Neutral, OXEGEN recycles all waste and sends any abandoned camping supplies to OXFAM in Africa. Wellies for Welfare offers a free exchange of any shoes you have for a free pair of wellies (High boots that are waterproof and worn by all of Ireland apparently) and donates the shoes to children in need.
You can also trade old shirts for new ones made entirely of recycled materials for free as well. You can return any beverage cups from the event for recycling and receive a 3 Euro refund.