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Unlike many of the people I saw yesterday I did indeed manage to stay conscious and mostly dry and mud free. The choice of options for getting there lead to some confusion. Bus Eireann didn’t feel like bringing anyone to the festival on Saturday and they had given up selling tickets online.

I found out the last dublin bus departure was at 5 from parnell square. Trying to get on the bus I had to remind some conductors who were busy chatting with some drunken nordies that people were standing waiting in the rain.

An hour later I wondered why we were still miles from Punchestown. The gps on my phone would’nt work but I recognised Lucan which is west of Dublin and I knew we were supposed to be going southwest. To make it worse there was a cocaine dealing rugby fool from Cork talking out loud all the way. Duncan was shouting his name into the phone to his friend Vincent who was near some speakers it seems. We had to endure his commentary on the fools and easy mingers (sure how baaaad) he has encountered all over Ireland.

Dublin Bus have decided that the most direct route between any 2 points is a straight line, but that doesnt apply in the daytime. This is the route we took to the festival:

Strangely at 1am they returned the most direct route. Maybe it was their way of justifying 20 euros return. It was still better than what happened to the people in Slane.

As we filed to leave the concert arena, everyone was on a high and the atmosphere was great.

This was when things began to degenerate. The lack of organisation of the transport plans became apparent when we trudged uphill to try to get to our buses. Officials did not seem to know exactly where the buses were, vaguely pointing the way but giving no indication of how far away the departure area was. There was a general air of confusion around, as people were unsure whether they were going to make it on to the buses.

When we eventually made it to where the buses were parked, the situation became worse. Confusion turned to panic, when bus after bus was full, with drivers refusing to let any other passengers on board their vehicles.

We had to walk the length of at least 40 parked buses that showed no sign of leaving. In previous years, buses left when full, and a steady stream of buses was available to people leaving the concert. I have no idea why this did not seem to be the case this year.

The longer we had to walk, the smaller our chances seemed of getting onto any bus. People around us began trying to phone taxis – we even tried to see if we could get onto private buses, but the drivers – while sympathetic to our plight – couldn’t help us as they were all booked up in advance. At this point (three hours after we had left the concert), we were starting to worry about being stranded in the area.

The (very few) Dublin Bus officials either ignored us or told us to keep walking up the line of parked buses, saying that there were empty buses at the top. This was not the case.

The thing about punchestown is that it is a racecourse so the ground is mostly grass. It rains a lot in Ireland and sometimes for 2 or 3 days in a row during the season known as summer. People were delighted with the sight of mud and some even embraced it to its fullness. Soon after getting there I saw a big guy in a tracksuit roll like a pig in a deep puddle of mud and later on people rubbing mud on their faces.

This guy was asleep on the ground inside a tent while a crowd was forming to see a band. He only woke up when some people stood on his head and fell on top of him.

I found it a strange sight and thought that it was peoples way of paying tribute to woodstock more ’99 than ’69. |

Woodstock – one of the original “free” fests in 1969 – was marred by riots when it returned 30 years later as security broke down.

Some blamed the music for inciting violence while many other said corporate greed had pushed people over the edge.

I saw a documentary and it was the price of bottled water and the music of Insane Clown Posse that were credited with driving people insane.

I paid 6 euros for a burger at oxegen. It seems the minimum that I was going to be paying anywhere so I went to the place with the smallest queue. The food was barely warm but I was starving.

On my way there I was hungover and was going to be late for the last bus so I had no time to get cigarettes. Next came the task of locating something which is so bad we are not allowed to print an image of it or even the word. It struck me as bizzare and on a par with the danish pictures of Mohammad. I walked over to this stand where it says “under 18 no sale, No ID no sale, we ask for proof”. I asked in almost hushed tones “do you sell cigarettes”. They produced a laminated card with a wonderful selection of John Players for 8.50 a go. I said “you have to be joking”. They were’nt. I was kicking myself.

Not wanting to buy stage times for 10 euros I tried to get information on the Internet. The Wap site for Oxegen was designed to be the most frustrating thing ever. You could sort by stage but all the band names from the 3 days were just stuck together on each page. There was another option as they did advertise a premium 50000 number. Fashing signs normally used for traffic information were saying you could send a message to download your festival guide. There was no indication of the price – it said standard text rates apply, I’m sure.

11.2.1 Any Promotional Material for PSMS must include full pricing information inclusive of VAT and any other cost associated with the Service.

This is a violation of the regtel code of practice but clearly nobody could gives a shit or if they were fined would make a packet even if a small number of people were to use it.

Some clever methods people used to avoid water included cardboard boxes:

Awesome O

There was a tent where people could trade their shoes in for wellies and the shoes are sent to africa. They had to close for business early yesterday as they had a biggest tent full of smelly wet shoes known to man.

It seemes the approach to dealing with excess water in the music tents was to throw bark musch on it:

Some people asked me for stuff during the day. A girl asked when some band were playing and I said “tonight I think”, taking out my phone to check and she said “what an observation” in a bitchy tone. I said “I was going to help you” and walked off. Someone left us look at their stage times book and I gave them an umbrella, they were amazed. Someone tried to shake my hand 3 times for giving them a cigarette even though the box was still in my hand.

There was a commong sight of people who were being paid to do something but were just chatting and ignoring everyone. It was the 1 drunken steward who acted very strangely – “where do you think youre going” he asked me as I walked to the toilet, then feigning concern that I would be blown away. I think he was terrified because he had to endure Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club. I said “thanks” and left. There were 5 people at the plastic cup place who were “deep in conversation” as I waited to get my 3 euros back for 1 cup.

The eagles of death metal is more like music made to be listened to in the desert so it was a shame to see them in the rain. TV on the radio provided some music for us as we sheltered from the rain. It was’nt even close to full and the barriers were up and people were being asked to wait outside in the pouring rain. It all got too much for one guy and he was dragged away by 5 bouncers.

It was’nt all bad, digitalism were good as were the pet shop boys.