Oxegen 2010 Lineup - Initial Thoughts.

Those of you who know me, know that I adore the Oxegen festival and go every year. Should I go this year, it will be my fifth Oxegen. The lineup was announced this past week and it's garnered very mixed reactions. I've no problem as such with the acts themselves, however my only fear is that Jay-Z and, more prominently, Eminem will attract quite large numbers of scumbags. While I adore both acts and do look forward to seeing them, after experiencing the dodgey types who were there last year for the The Game( who pulled out as it happened) I am weary. Of course I'm not saying all the people going to see those acts will be troublesome, it's just that there'll inevitably be a few who'll cause hassle.


Ok, so that's the parent in me's message done, on to the rest of the lineup.

This is a list from the Oxegen site of the confirmed acts so far:

Eminem, Muse, Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas, Kasabian, The Prodigy, Florence and the Machine, Paolo Nutini, Faithless, Stereophonics, David Guetta, Vampire Weekend, Mumford and Sons, John Mayer, Hot Chip, Calvin Harris, Newton Faulkner, Gossip, The Temper Trap, Empire of the Sun, Goldfrapp, La Roux, Wolfmother, Rise Against, The Coral, Broken Social Scene, Ellie Goulding, Two Door Cinema Club, Arkansas, Armand Van Helden, Steve Angello, Simian Mobile Disco, Erol Alkan, Steve Aoki, A-Trak and Aeroplane.

From that list the acts I definitely plan on seeing are Rise Against, Mumford and Sons, Hot Chip, Steve Aoki, Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend, Eminem and Jay-Z.

I'm going to presume that Florence and The Machine will be on the O2 Stage, or whatever it's called this year, on Saturday or Sunday night after playing the fantastic but frankly tiny Red Bull Stage last year.

Hot Chip and Vampire Weekend both put on impressive shows when they played the festival in 08. It's been three years since I've seen Rise Against and it'll be cool seeing one band knowing that a lot of the crowd won't be drunk as they're straight edge. That said, who's to know, or care for that matter! They put on a good show and thats the important thing.

Despite not being announced, I definitely see We Are Scientists putting in a turn on the O2 Stage over the weekend, with a new album out in June.

I reckon we'll also see Welsh singer-songwriter Marina and the Diamonds, MGMT and The Dead Weather will appear.

There'll need to be another 1 or 2 big rock names added to the list to headline the O2 Stage or even the main stage, depending on what way Jay-Z, Muse and Eminem are going to be spread across the weekend.

I look forward to meeting up with the friends I made at last year's festival too. :)