Oxegen 2012 & Discussion

karaokeman

O'Doodle wrote: »

How do we know Oxegen made a loss last year? Isn't that just pure speculation on behalf of everyone? 40,000 tickets only sold?

There was easily 80k in the field for Coldplay on Sunday!

I was at Coldplay, it was the biggest crowd I saw all weekend but wouldn't say it was 80k. 40k would be a possibility, I also saw Green Day in Marlay Park which sold maybe 23k and I tought that gig was half the size of Coldplay's audience at Oxegen.

Tbf Oxegen is a dead duck. They have missed out on potential christmas ticket sales and it has been said time and time again they will not be getting as many massive headliners should next year go ahead because all the others (RHCP, Bruce, Stone Roses) are booked.

Having said that Kings of Leon did play two years in a row so it may not be impossible to see one of the major headliners this year (Coldplay and Foos) heading again.

Foos I doubt will play again next year seen as how Dave Grohl talked so much about them organising something really big for their next Irish show. That would hardly be talk about headlining a second year in a row, it has to be somewhere like Slane.

So that just leaves Coldplay to headline again if anything. This year there were 4 really big (and I mean stadium-sized) headliners at Oxegen. The two pop acts Beyonce and BEP and the two rock bands Coldplay and Foos. Next year's Oxegen would need to top that and be organised better to sell over 40k tickets and avoid making a further loss.

Pearl Jam wouldn't shift as many tickets as Foos, neither would the Killers, Bruce is playing the RDS/SR in Phoenix Park and and RHCP are playing Croker. That would leave next year with Coldplay, Rihanna and Lady GaGa as three possible massive headliners. Even saying that its quite unlikely Coldplay will return and I don't think Rihanna/ Lady GaGa could sell 80k tickets for what was traditionally a rock 'n' roll weekend.

It is a game MCD were bound to lose at some stage. Oxegen needs to be scaled down and made into a smaller festival with less acts and only maybe two or three stages.

the_doctor199

Beyonce and Coldplay had the biggest crowds of the weekend but by previous years standards it was a fairly poor crowd for even those two, crowd used to be solid to the top of the hill, you could make your way to the sound desk with ease the whole weekend.

Furious-Red

Fridays main stage was empty till the Script , i was there all day and the crowd size was tiny . When i was at the Vodafone stage over the weekend only Bruno Mars got a massive crowd , Jimmy Eat World had small crowd , Pendulum had a decent crowd(but nothing to write home about) and The National had literally no people there (although anyone who was up against Beyonce was gonna lose out big time)

Deeluu

Gunslinger92 wrote: »

Good effing riddance, went the past 2 years and I'd say I've definitely blown about a grand on the 2 of them. :mad:

Yeah after this year (although the line up was amazing) I swore if I ever went again I'd just buy a day ticket for the best day....its just overrun by absolute scumbags now it ruins the festival for people who pay through the nose to see decent acts. It is a shame though especially considering the acts they've had in the past....

BrianD

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

MCD say details of Oxegen will be announced next year.

They wouldn't play down rumours of a move to Phoenix Park if that wasn't actually planned to happen; it's very uncommon for MCD to directly respond to rumours in the press.

Saying that it is interesting that they've booked The Stone Roses so close to usual dates Oxegen is held on. Maybe MCD feel booking them for Oxegen would be put to waste?

Even more important is that Stone Roses are playing T in The Park which has been twinned with Oxegen due to a common promoter. The obvious thing would have been to slot them into Oxegen.

I don't think that what the crowd thinks in these times matters as much as the economics of the gig. Putting on a gig in Phoenix Park on the what would be the first day of Oxegen would be hugely commercially unattractive. Not only are you diluting your customers but you also have to factor in that there's a huge amount of production resources (stages, staff, portaloos etc) that would be required. Wouldn't make sense.

MCD are great on the promotions side of things. Right now almost every radio station would be running Oxegen ads and promotions as with previous years. That ain't happening and if there ever was a sign that's one. Every festival now needs 12 months of activity - from announcing the dates straight after the last festival, drip feeding out info, the Christmas promotions and then the ramping up of line up announcements and ticket sales. The objective of every promoter is to get early ticket sales - especially for high priced events like festivals.

Skig_Sean

I don't see why people saying that just because one concert is on the same weekend that Oxegen is cancelled. If I remember correctly Bruce Springsteen played the RDS the same weekend in '09 I think. Plus did the Script not play the same week as Oxegen and then play Oxegen? (I could be mistaken on the dates but I don't recall there being a huge gap)

Plus The Stone Roses aren't exactly the band to book for a young crowd.

honru

Yeah, they're not even on the same weekend although the date still raises eyebrows. One possibility that I think I mentioned earlier: Rihanna is ruled out for T in the Park so maybe she is playing Oxegen instead of The Stone Roses? They don't always share the same headliners.

And the idea there are "no headliners to go round" is absurd. It's still early days! Other European festivals are only trickling out acts at this point.

seanbmc

Tickets were always too expensive too.

karaokeman

Ok maybe the Stone Roses taking place the thursday before Oxegen is not guaranteed proof it won't take place but the point a lot of us are making is this - Oxegen is shooting itself in the foot.

With how disastrous ticket sales were this year, MCD would want to do all they can for Oxegen to be brought back to its former glory next year. They can't afford to have anymore pint-sized crowds at the main stage.

To do so it would be necessary to tease out information at a steady rate to boost ticket sales. Taken many other festivals still have to announce their lineup, several already have their dates announced Oxegen doesn't.

I don't know about anyone else but if I was going to spend €240 next July I would want to have a bit more than 6 months notice and thats all Oxegen will have left if they leave announcements until "next year".

True there are still more big acts to go around but all of the likely bands have played Oxegen all too many times (Snow Patrol, Killers etc). I reckon Oxegen would need acts they have never brought out before to increase interest, get someone like Pearl Jam or U2 who could really help ticket sales.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Its not going to happen

ghostdancer

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

Yeah, they're not even on the same weekend although the date still raises eyebrows. One possibility that I think I mentioned earlier: Rihanna is ruled out for T in the Park so maybe she is playing Oxegen instead of The Stone Roses? They don't always share the same headliners.

And the idea there are "no headliners to go round" is absurd. It's still early days! Other European festivals are only trickling out acts at this point.

they're playing the day before what should be the Oxegen weekend. it's pretty much certain that Oxegen won't be any weekend other than the same one as TITP. if Oxegen were on, you can be guaranteed MCD would put the Stone Roses on one of the nights. if they were adamant about not playing as part of a festival (even though they're playing other festivals next summer), then MCD would have shoved them on some time not so close to Oxegen weekend. they're still playing in Europe in August, so they could presumably work in a gig here on a Thurs/Fri/Sat in late July/August.

at this stage, i'd think it's pretty likely that there'll just be a few gigs in the Phoenix Park over the same weekend as TITP, with several of the TITP acts playing those gigs.

Oasis_Dublin

Skig_Sean wrote: »

Plus The Stone Roses aren't exactly the band to book for a young crowd.

I wouldn't be so convinced of this one

argentum

Oxegen is on a week earlier next year so its the weekend before the Stone Roses,all the concession companies have been advised of this to prepare

Colm!

argentum wrote: »

Oxegen is on a week earlier next year so its the weekend before the Stone Roses,all the concession companies have been advised of this to prepare

Source?

Deeluu

argentum wrote: »

Oxegen is on a week earlier next year so its the weekend before the Stone Roses,all the concession companies have been advised of this to prepare

How do you know that?

O'Doodle

Doesn't make sense not to have it on the same weekend as T in the Park in terms of logistics for the bands performing therefore I believe Oxegen won't be happening next year!

Deeluu

O'Doodle wrote: »

Doesn't make sense not to have it on the same weekend as T in the Park in terms of logistics for the bands performing therefore I believe Oxegen won't be happening next year!

I agree, there haven't even been murmurings of early bird tickets and there usually is around this time of year...and although people have been arguing to the contrary...there really is no way they could get a line up even close to that of last year with all the gigs that are already going on. And considering how poor ticket sales were with THAT line up, I cannot see it going ahead this year without the likes of RHCP, The Stone Roses, perhaps Coldplay etc.

Jeden

I would be much happier if they watered down the Oxegen festival to a rival smaller event somewhere near town. I think this would be commercially viable, wouldn't require the huge acts and would bring a slightly older audience back into play as they wouldn't have to camp.

Sure aren't most of the 17-21 year olds off in Australia/NZ anyway??

karaokeman

Deeluu wrote: »

I agree, there haven't even been murmurings of early bird tickets and there usually is around this time of year...and although people have been arguing to the contrary...there really is no way they could get a line up even close to that of last year with all the gigs that are already going on. And considering how poor ticket sales were with THAT line up, I cannot see it going ahead this year without the likes of RHCP, The Stone Roses, perhaps Coldplay etc.

And don't forget Bruce, maybe Foos (if they are confirmed for Slane next year).

MCD should just put us out of our misery and publicly announce there will be no Oxegen 2012, for all we know all this speculation could go on for 30 more pages.

MonkstownHoop

The last one i was at was 2 years ago and it all but confirmed its death for me

paulbok

While I think oxegen is awful, it does give the scangers and 17 year old drunken sloppers something to go to. With it they'll all go to EP and ruin that too.

Bloc Party!

I really hope its not cancelled..but what annoys me most is that people think just because there wasn't many people at the main stage doesent mean that there wasnt many people at the festival..oxegen had a very good line up with a lot of bands on the vodafone stage which was out of the way, such as the strokes,tinie tempah,deadmau5,paolo nutini etc with many of these clashing with other bands on the main stage..Bruce springsting and the stone roses are mostly a older generations music which wouldnt draw as many young people unlike the likes of rihanna (which is sad) would draw alot more younger people which is oxegens main market..im not gunna rule out oxegen is not going ahead until mcd say so!

O'Doodle

It'll be sad if it goes!

You can deffo see Oxegens demise. For example, the lack of TV coverage for Oxegen over the last few years has been shocking.

In the UK, T in the Park is shown live on BBC 2 most nights with extended coverage on the red button, Glastonbury gets proper,proper coverage and Reading and Leeds gets shown live on BBC too. Isle of Wight Fest headliners get shown live on ITV 3 and the VFestival headliners gets shown on live E4.

Oxegen gets a crappy 1hr highlights shown on some obscure Sky channel about 2 months after the festival! Crap!

3hn2givr7mx1sc

O'Doodle wrote: »

It'll be sad if it goes!

You can deffo see Oxegens demise. For example, the lack of TV coverage for Oxegen over the last few years has been shocking.

In the UK, T in the Park is shown live on BBC 2 most nights with extended coverage on the red button, Glastonbury gets proper,proper coverage and Reading and Leeds gets shown live on BBC too. Isle of Wight Fest headliners get shown live on ITV 3 and the VFestival headliners gets shown on live E4.

Oxegen gets a crappy 1hr highlights shown on some obscure Sky channel about 2 months after the festival! Crap!

That's our national broadcasters being shít again. Surprised TV3/3e didn't pick up on it, or even TG4.

greatbuzzman

****ing deadmau5 sold out, ticketmaster wont let me buy a ticket, please don't cancel Oxegen!!

skeleton_boy

Yeah it was a good weekend but the price of tickets was ridiculous.

Big Game

4 day ticket to Benicassim is only €170 with better weather and booze is cheaper. Pick up cheap flights and you'd do it for the same price as Oxegen. Why anyone would choose Oxegen above it is beyond me.....

http://www.ticketmaster.ie/event/18004769A9CE6180?artistid=2198&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=60

G-Money

I think I might have went to this the first year it was renamed Oxegen and once or twice when it was called Wittness. You couldn't pay me enough to go to it these days, mostly as I have no interest in festivals anymore and it's unfortunately a lot of scumbags and airhead bimbo's.

Although I'm sure there are quite a few decent people at it too.

Tinie

Meh, dont care if it does or does not go ahead. Im not going this year anyway, last few years have been average at best, and am going to go to a festival in Australia next summer.

Its the same thing every year at oxegen, it gets so repetitive.

argentum

Deeluu wrote: »

How do you know that?

I work for one of the concession companies and they have booked staff in to work already.We have been told its in Punchestown a week earlier than normal and not to book holidays