Having recently returned from a weekend in Manchester, which is incidental, but coincided with Ireland’s biggest music festival, the Oxygen Festival, taking place; I was for some reason not in the slightest bit surprised by the fact that all that was reported on in the papers, both at home and in the UK, was the fact that the festival was marred by knife attacks, public disorder arrests and Amanda Brunkers pitiful attempt at her own public X Factor audition. All I wanted to hear about, not only from the papers but my friends, was how good the Foo Fighters were, what bands performed well live and who didn’t. But the fact that Oxegen as a festival has sold out and moved away from ensuring a quality festival enjoyed by all, has made this type of news unimportant. Oxegen has created a well marketed and attended marketing dream which cares little about the music or what its crowd represents as long as the gate receipts are high and the acts keep coming for the money. The benchmark should be a Glastonbury which still represents a mature crowd they’re for the music ad that is reflected in acts such as Paul Simon still gracing (excuse the pun) the stage. Having attended the Oxegen Festival during its early years and seeing what it has evolved into one thing is very obvious to me; the organisers have forgotten its goal and sacrificed the music for the money. I just wish this wish they would reconsider their approach of creating a festival for under age masses to get drunk and ruin the weekends of those few who are there for the music.
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