More and more summer music festivals seem to be popping up all across the world, but a few outliers are shutting down for 2014. One example is the Oxegen festival in the County Kildare on the outskirts of Dublin, which won't take place for the second time since 2012.
"It is with regret that MCD announce that Oxegen will not take place this year due to lack of suitable headline acts which combined with the financial demands by local agencies make it no longer viable to stage the Festival in its current form," read a statement on the festival's website.
Both issues listed by organizers in the statement reflect potential long-term issues for Oxegen. One, if there was an honest lack of headlining-potential acts available for the festival, it may reflect an over-saturation of the world's music festival market. More likely however is the possibility that organizers just didn't act fast enough to fill its own bill. The number of music festivals being what it is, especially in the UK, organizers must move quickly, and Oxegen didn't release single name, suggesting that they didn't move quickly enough.
However, Oxegen had gone down at Ireland's Punchestown Racecourse every year from from 2004 to 2012, so we imagine planners would understand how to organize a festival, which makes the monetary issue more likely the cause of Oxegen's problems. After all, the festival has hosted The Foo Fighters, The Killers and The Strokes as headliners in the past, and Snoop Dogg and Calvin Harris during 2013. Organizers never gave a reason for the 2012 break, but financial concerns are naturally a rumor. It seems odd that "local agencies" would make it difficult for Oxegen to get proper licensure, as the media blamed the 2012 cancellation for serious damage to the local economy in Kildare.
No statements have been made regarding the future of the festival and whether it can be expected to return during 2015.
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