Oxegen - History

History

Oxegen first took place in 2004 over the second weekend in July. The Killers, who went on to headline the festival twice in 2007 and 2009, were one of the bands to appear at the first Oxegen. Dave Keuning, in an interview with Hot Press prior to the 2009 festival, described Oxegen as "a big deal because it's one of the first European festivals we lpayed when we came over from Vegas in 2004. We only had one hit—"Mr. Brightside"—and were worried in case no one showed. But the tent was packed with people screaming out the words to songs we didn't think they knew. It was that night we thought, 'Hey, something's happening here!' Oxegen more so than Glastonbury even was the highlight of our summer."

The original festival, Witnness, sponsored by Guinness, took place during the start of August with notable headliners, including Oasis, The Foo Fighters and Green Day. In its second and third year, running changed its dates to the second weekend of July. In 2008 Oxegen became a three-day festival.

Rodrigo y Gabriela made their breakthrough after being asked by Damien Rice to perform with him at Oxegen 2004.

The Japanese Popstars formed after viewing several dance acts at Oxegen 2006.

R.E.M. members Michael Stipe and Peter Buck watched several shows from side stage at Oxegen 2007 before returning to headline the festival the following year. Stipe credits his 2007 visit with inspiring him to want to go on tour again, saying: "I saw all these great bands and the next day after the festival we went into the studio."

Muse, known for their spectacular light show and their reputation as one of the best live bands in the world, headlined Oxegen 2007. They returned to headline the mainstage on the Saturday night of the 2010 festival.

Battles played the biggest festival show of their career at that time in the Pet Sounds Arena during Oxegen 2008. The Prodigy played four new songs at Oxegen 2008. Also in 2008, Interpol were sent champagne by U2 as they arrived for rehearsals.

Chad Wolf of Carolina Liar described the band's performance at Oxegen 2009 as an "an out-of-body experience".

Each Oxegen has been defined by the attention focused on its own weather, with The Belfast Telegraph referring to 2005 as "the sunny one", 2006 as "the torrentially rainy one", 2007 as "the muddy one" and 2008 as "the so-so one".