Oxegen 2010: A Slightly Blurred, But For The Most Part Sufficiently Sober, Brief Recollection Of Events

_____“It can’t rain as much as last year”. Arriving on the Thursday evening to a field of damp campers all looking worriedly skywards, this is what I told myself. But I don’t want to talk about that.

_____This here is a cross between my personal reaction to my first ever Oxegen and an amateur music blogger’s review of the event. As usual with this type of weekend, the Friday came first. It rained. I had already been to a music festival, but I only knew two other people at it, so Oxegen differed greatly in terms of the campsite atmosphere. Drinking was less of a chore, and a lot of the time we arrived late to sets. Such as our first set, The Coronas. I don’t have them on my iPod, but sure you hear enough of them on the radio to know a few of their songs anyways. They pulled a fairly decent crowd, and the reaction received by San Diego Song was even more impressive than I anticipated. Although I wouldn’t have cared much if we hadn’t gone to see them, I’m glad we did, if anything just to reward their genuine gratitude towards the people who came to see them with a slightly bigger crowd.
___Next came Vampire Weekend and Stereophonics, two bands I was really excited for. Both played strong sets, and both frontmen looked inappropriately slick. Unfortunately, we had to leave the latter prematurely, meaning I missed Dakota, but Have A Nice Day and A Thousand Trees ensured my Friday ended on a high note, and with an Arcade Fire set at Leeds to look forward to all the more.



_____Following the Friday came a Saturday. It rained again, but heavier and for longer this time. Saturday originally stood out as the strongest day music wise, and it certainly lived up to my expectations. Two Door Cinema Club and Biffy Clyro were two of my favourite sets of the festival. Ellie Goulding was extremely agreeable also, partly due to the fact she played in a dry tent, but mostly down to the energy and heart she gave each and every one of her songs. We had planned to go to 3Oh!3 next, but both very sober and very wet, we decided it best just to get back to the tent, but accidentally we stumbled into 3Oh!3’s set on the way, so stuck it out, and I must admit, although painfully cliché, it was a thoroughly enjoyable gig. Starstrukk, Don’t Trust Me, and new song My First Kiss were all absolutely fantastic, and credit to them, they got the biggest shout of the weekend with their questionably authentic compliments to the crowd.
___Our evening that day comprised of two of the best bands of the weekend, and probably the worst. Gossip’s atrociously homogenous set upset my ears, and indeed my principles, that my body punished me through swelling my glands to such an extent that I could not move my head in any direction more than 30 degrees. This meant I couldn’t bop with our groovy section of the crowd during a brilliant Hot Chip set, and nor could I scream aloud to the phenomenal Muse. Because boy did I want to scream.



_____Their setlist was practically perfect, Feeling Good wasn’t too missed, and Bliss more than made up for New Born’s absence. I was quite disappointed with the crowd, this video far from proving otherwise, but I guess at a festival you’re never going to get a concentrated crowd of fans like you would at a gig. Because if they played that a gig, the place would have exploded. Their godlike status was only reinforced when the rain subsided almost on cue for when they came out. It did start again for a bit halfway through, but you'd swear they planned that way, their lasers looking all the more awesome through the rain.

_____The weekend ended unsurprisingly on a Sunday. What was surprising, was that it didn’t rain! For this reason, everyone was in a good mood. The day wasn’t great for the music, I missed We Are Scientists and 30 Seconds To Mars whilst enjoying the sun, but Jamie T was really worth watching, set closer Sticks n’ Stones one of my songs of the weekend. My weekend finished not with Prodigy as I had originally thought, but with Mumford and Sons, a band I liked, but never loved like many people I know, but I’m happy to say that the rumours are true; they are truly superb live.



_____So looking back, I’m definitely glad I went to Oxegen, despite the rain. I think it’s not as much about the music as Leeds, the stage line-ups lack structure (Doves into Black Eyed Peas, The Temper Trap into 30 Seconds To Mars) and apart from the headliners, the sets are generally much shorter, cementing my opinion that Oxegen sometimes veers towards quantity over quality, although that’s obviously not to say there isn’t good line-ups each year. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as festivals aren’t all about the music, the social aspect plays a huge part, and Oxegen is great in that respect. However, I still maintain at 250 euro for a weekend camping, it’s horrendously over-priced.

_____So, to wrap up, it was good. There weren’t any striking low-lights, but plenty of high ones: some quality drunk-people-watching, getting beautifully overchanged by a chipper, a superb Muse setlist, and a terrifically sunny Sunday. Oh the wristbands are cool too. I imagine I’ll be back.