The Oxegen 2013 lineup was released yesterday to much consternation. Ireland’s biggest Rock N Roll festival had switched its direction and become a dance and urban festival and seemingly caught thousands by surprise. We have said for weeks that the organisers would be pushing a dance / urban / hip-hop and pop style lineup this year, but it seems this never really landed with the thousands upon thousands of Oxegen fans, all still waiting for their Rock N Roll giant to awake from its hibernation.
So with so much dismay in the air, Twitter, Facebook et al, where does that leave Oxegen?
Lineup
Yes, we agree this isn’t a classic Oxegen / Witnness lineup, but we knew this lineup wouldn’t be. The MCD summer festival campaign has attempted to divide and conquer. Your indie rock and electro fix is coming to you courtesy of Longitude while your dance / hip-hop fix comes to you from Oxegen. While we don’t see this as a major issue, the sentiment echoed by hundreds in comments and tweets seems to be that the variety of Oxegen was something they loved.
Can this lineup sell out 50,000 tickets. The names are there to do it, but realistically it could struggle. Where previously its lineup spanned the entire spectrum of radio playlist types and demographic, this years fits with a small minority. Adverts will have less impact on the major stations, papers are unlikely to reach their demographic and so this will be a test of Live Nation / MCD as a promoter. They need adapt and find new ways of getting these tickets sold.
The Name
Could the name have been changed this year since the lineup is very un-Oxegen? Well no, it never really could be. From a marketing perspective, they have a huge following on Twitter and Facebook and existing email databases all signed up for an Oxegen fill. These are fantastic marketing tools to help shift tickets. Building these up from scratch would need a longer lead in time, certainly far longer than just over three months. Also, as pointed out in this excellent article by Jim Carroll earlier today, the sponsors will have had a lot to say about it. To quote him ” there’s a reason why the last two letters in the festival’s logo are coloured green“.
Trouble
One of the major issues people are raising right now is that this lineup will bring with it a huge amount of trouble. Following the Swedish House Mafia event in Phoenix Park last year, there has been increased scrutiny of safety at gigs and in particular searches. Unfortunately, bar airport style security – which will lead to huge queues getting in – there is only so much security can do again small concealed objects. The SHM event has also blurred the fact that dance events happen all the time in Ireland with no stabbings or deaths. There has been an aggressive atmosphere at Oxegen for the last few years and the lineup has shifted towards pop and dance and hip-hop over the last while. Those who were attending Oxegen recently may still have a massive interest in the lineup thus far.
Will there be trouble? Almost definitely. There is trouble, arrests, seizures at every festival. We just hope nobody is seriously injured, as with every large gathering of people.
The Opportunity
While there seems to be a high degree of pontificating about the lineup, there is an opportunity here. Even if the event doesn’t sell out, there is an opportunity to once again restore the reputation of the dance music style with a well run festival. Off the back of the SHM event, MCD and Garda took a hammering. To a degree, there were grounds for this, but while the atmosphere was aggressive, there was only 1 or 2 idiots that took the event from a gig that happened where people had fun, to headline slot in a paper.
If MCD/Live Nation can manage to put 50,000 (or less) supposedly troublesome people in Punchestown Racecourse for the weekend and keep it relatively trouble-free, they will most certainly silence a few doubters. Similarly, those fans of dance music have an opportunity to prove that the crowds in attendance are not all violent to the point of bodily harm.
In Closing
Oxegen 2013 certainly isn’t a lineup filled with acts we would generally cover and review here at GP. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place or a following. The name Oxegen will almost certainly only stay while Heineken see value in it. People’s expectations, both lineup and weekend wise, will certainly have to shift as it is unlikely Oxegen will revert to its “Rock N Roll”-ish past. If it sells out entirely, it shows that the interest in this kind of lineup has been underestimated. If the traffic we have gotten over the last few days is anything to go by, the interest in Oxegen is still massive. If enough of that traffic actually did like the lineup, and buy tickets, it will sell out easily.
Here’s an Oxegen playlist to get you in the mood