Oxegen '08 was the fifth Oxegen festival to take place, following the dissolution of its predecessor Witnness in 2004. It took place on the weekend of Friday 11 July, Saturday 12 July and Sunday 13 July at Punchestown Racecourse near Naas in County Kildare, Ireland. For the first time the festival was a three-day event. The festival was headlined by Kings of Leon on the Friday, The Verve and R.E.M. on the Saturday and Rage Against the Machine on the Sunday.
Build-up
Tickets
Presale tickets went on sale at 8 a.m. on Friday 30 November 2007 at a cost of €197. Actual sale tickets went on sale at 8 a.m. on Friday 7 March 2008, with 4-day camping tickets priced at €244.50 and 3-day camping tickets priced at €224.50. Thursday camping passes cost €20 extra. Three-day weekend camping and four-day weekend camping tickets along with day tickets for Saturday 12 July were sold out by Monday 10 March 2008. A very limited number of three-day (no camping) tickets and day tickets for Friday 11 July and Sunday 13 July were still available for a period after going sale, before the Oxegen website announced at 14:09 on Wednesday 7 May 2008 that all tickets were sold out. On Friday 13 June, in what they described as "a move to combat touting", MCD put a limited number of extra weekend tickets on sale for Oxegen 2008. The tickets were made available from the official website and Ticketmaster from Friday 20 June.
Line-up confirmation timetable
November: On 27 November 2007 at 17:00, Kings of Leon became the first band to be announced to play Oxegen. The band topped an online poll which asked festival-goers for their dream line-up and so the band were immediately asked and confirmed. Vocalist Caleb Followill said: "We love playing in Ireland, the fans are brilliant and we can't wait to play Oxegen 2008". They headlined the opening night (Friday) of the festival.
February: On 15 February 2008, R.E.M. were confirmed for Oxegen 2008, the second act to be announced and joining Kings of Leon. Meanwhile, Kaiser Chiefs confirmed themselves and Rage Against the Machine as Sunday night headliners on their official website; however this announcement was edited on 18 February to bear no mention of Rage Against the Machine who had yet to be officially confirmed. The words "directly before headliners Rage Against The Machine" were removed from the page. Tim Burgess also revealed that The Charlatans would be appearing although that too was hushed up soon afterwards. The Pogues too confirmed themselves online.
On 19 February at 16:29, Kaiser Chiefs, The Raconteurs and Ian Brown were announced on the official website, followed by The Fratellis, Interpol and Counting Crows the next day. 21 February saw Hot Chip, Justice, The Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin and Alabama 3 added to the line-up. Finally, at 09:14 on 22 February, Rage Against the Machine were confirmed as headliners by the organisers. On Sunday 24 February, The Verve were confirmed on the official website for an appearance at Oxegen 2008. Stereophonics, Band of Horses, Seasick Steve, The Courteeners and Future Kings of Spain were all confirmed by the official website on 25 February, with official confirmation of The Prodigy, Panic! at the Disco, The Feeling, DJ Koze, Kaz James (BodyRockers) and Crookers on the following day.
March: The e-mail sent out with pre-sale ticket information to those registered on the official site confirmed that Bowling for Soup, Kate Nash, Editors, The Hoosiers, Newton Faulkner, Pendulum, Scouting for Girls, The Zutons, Battles, Róisín Murphy, Lightspeed Champion and David Jordan would also be playing. These twelve and Richard Hawley were confirmed by the official website on Monday 3 March. On Thursday 6 March, Tom Dunne's Pet Sounds show on Today FM broadcast an Oxegen Special previewing this year's line-up alongside festival highlights from previous years. Meanwhile, Hot Press was amongst the first news outlets to confirm that Amy Winehouse would again be scheduled to finally appear at Oxegen. Several bands and musicians such as Echo & the Bunnymen, The Wombats, The Pigeon Detectives, The Subways, Ben Folds, Delays, The Script, Kavinsky, Mindless Self Indulgence, and Boys Noize also confirmed themselves to play Oxegen '08 on their own websites before later being confirmed by the official Oxegen website.