Oxegen 2009 - The Good, The Bad and The Muddy.

Oxegen 2009 was my fourth consecutive Oxegen festival. In order to avoid a huge wall of text I'm going to review it in bullet points under three headings.

The Good

• Getting to the campsite and setting up in good weather.
  
• AC/DC tribute band Hells Bells playing the Thursday night stage.
• The Xbox Live stage in the Blue Campsite.
• Niall Gaffney's childlike excitement towards returning to Oxegen.
  
• "I'm sorry, I thought this was America"
  
• "I like your schtyle!"
• "So basically, we're lucking for trouble."
  
• Having an awesomely warm and dry tent.
• Having awesomely warm and dry tent mates!
• 'Free' stuff.
• Pendulum playing Master Of Puppets.
• Charming some free Ben & Jerry's
  
• Good nights of sleep.
• Showering.
  
• Meeting people from all over the place especially Tyrone (Sean, Shauna and Hannah) and Belfast (Sophia, Meabh and of course Max)
  
• Trip into Naas and associated 'free' bowl and salt shaker.
  
• Chancey Tent.
• The relationship between Ken and Ferghal.
  
• Getting recognised by a random Londoner as 'David Reilly the Comedian!!'
• Seeing my friend Jon Hozier-Byrne's brother Andrew play the IMRO Stage.
• Seeing The Killers play songs from Hot Fuss.
• The random sunny intervals.
• Not having to worry about tents or bags on Sunday.
• Mud fights.
• Learning how to make the Blood symbol.
• The guy in the horse mask doing the 'look'.
  
• Experiencing Of Montreal's show.
• Toplessness.
• Dancing to Song 2 in my boxers with Conor.
• Meeting Conor and Ken just as the "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhh!" from Sabotage by The Beastie Boys kicked in during The Bloody Beetroots.
• Niall's return from Naas Hospital.
  
• The Frothy Gashes were the band of the weekend. Followed by The Bloody Beetroots or Of Montreal.

The Bad

• The rain.
• Sunburn.
• The toilets.
• Niall refracturing his leg.
  
• Over abundance of chavs, knackers, scumbags, skangers, scobes, spidies, pillheads etc.
• Festival virgins shouting "It's Oxegen!!" whenever anyone did anything sensible like sleep.
• Sleeping on a rock.
• Getting soaked going to the Schuh Welly Exchange only to find it to be closed.
• Being three minutes from meeting Maximo Park but being too pissed off about the Schuh tent to wait.
• Ladyhawke getting sick. (Swine Flu or the good AIDS I reckon)
  
• The Game cancelling (Shot no doubt)
• People losing phones and cameras.
• Overcrowded tents.
• Knackbags acting the prick during The Gaslight Anthem waiting for The Game.
• Getting headbutted at Pendulum.
• Scumbags moshing. They don't know how to. If someone falls down, you let them up, not swing kicks at them.
• Hearing The Killers play songs from their second and third album.
• Not meeting more Tweeple or friends from Kilkenny or Dublin.
• Dropping medication on the Dance Hall's floor and having to take it anyway.
• Missing some great bands due to clashes or weather; Mars Volta, Regina Spektor, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Digitalism to name a few.
• Not being able to find my tent, regardless of time of day.
• Being chased by a security guard for peeing on a fence while trying to put it away without peeing on myself or catching myself in the zip.
• Foals not playing Hummer.
  
• Constantly being asked for 'yokes', pills or E's.

The Muddy

• Anto Lynch
• Conor Kelly
• Brendan McKiernan
  
• Emma Finch
  
• Ferghal Hand
• Hannah Tyrone
  
• James Henry
  
• Joseph O'Sullivan
  
• Ken Ryan
  
• Leanne Brady
  
• Louise O'Malley
• Lucy Doyle
  
• Marcus Sheridan
  
• Maxine Clarke
• May Belfast
  
• Niall Gaffney
• Niall Murray
  
• Oisin Henry
  
• Oisin McDonnell
  
• Rob Hand
  
• Robbie Kane
• Sam Moore
  
• Sarah Reilly
  
• Sean Tyrone
  
• Shauna Tyrone
  
• Sophia Connolly
  
• Sorcha Almond-Murray
• Tereas Cronin
  
• Me :)

All in all, it was an enjoyable year. Out of the four I've been to, I'd rank it in third place ahead of 2007, and behind 2006 and 2008.Will I go back next year? Can't say for sure, but no doubt, like every year, I'll change my mind 418 times before next July.

Phish Guts Shake.

Third milkshake in three days. I'm quite impressed at myself:)



Ingredients:

- Milk
- Vanilla ice cream
- Ben & Jerry's Phish Phood
- Cadbury's Turkish Delight
Steps:

-Claire Richards

Add 500ml of milk to the blender.
Then add 6-8 squares of Turkish Delight.
Blend for about 30 seconds to break the chocolate up well enough.

-Faye Tozer

Now add three scoops of vanilla ice cream and two scoops of Phish Phood.
Blend!


-Lisa Scott-Lee

Test it.
It may need to be blended a bit for to get that milkshake constituency. If so...
Blend!

-Lee Latchford-Evans

I managed to get two servings out of the measurements I used.
Top with two slivers of Ben & Jerry's and one sliver of vanilla, and sprinkle with some Flake.
The name comes from the little bits of red turkish floating about and the dismember chocolate phish from the B&J.





-Ian 'H' Watkins

A bit like yesterday's shake, the chocolate tends to get into the little crevices of the the blender so you may have to disassemble it to fully clean it. Just watch out H almost lost a finger on the blender blades. Twat.


Note: I originally thought this recipe would be suitable for vegetarians, but after some research, Cadbury's Turkish Delight appears to be veggie friendly.

Thanks muchly!

Uncle Raspberry's Riproaring Good Time and Chocolate Chip Experience !

I continued my productive ways and decided to make to have another crack at making a milkshake.

Ingredients:
-Milk
-Raspberry Ripple ice cream
-Chocolate chip cookies

Despite not being a fan of measurements or specifics I did note them in case anyone wanted them

Steps:

-Claire Richards

Add 500ml of milk to the blender.
Then add 5 cookies, breaking them once or twice before putting them in.
Blend!

Yummy, eh?

-Faye Tozer

Now add two large slices or three scoops of raspberry ice cream.
Blend!
Blend for about 30 seconds to fully homogenise the mixture.

-Lisa Scott-Lee

Test it.
If it's too runny, add another scoop/slice of ice cream.
Blend!

-Lee Latchford-Evans

By now it should be finished.
Serve in a large glass and top with a little bit of ice cream and some crumbled cookies.

Cookies yet to be added; Latchford-Evans slacking.

-Ian 'H' Watkins

There's a bit more effort invloved in cleaning the blender due to renegade lumps of cookie and ice cream. Buy it's cool, because that's what H is for.


Thanks for reading! :)

Coffee Milkshake!

For those who hate coffee, stop gagging. It's nice!

Ingredients:
-Vanilla Ice Cream
-Coffee (granulated)
-Sugar
-Milk

Not pictured: a cup of hope.

Don't ask me for measurements because I just threw what I felt was the right amount into my smoothie maker.

Steps:

-Claire Richards

Place a good bit of milk in the blending device.
Add two or three spoons of coffee depending on preference.
Blend for a few seconds until the coffee is dissolved and the milk has turned a healthy brown colour

-Faye Tozer

Add 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream and one spoon of sugar.


And blend!

Thumbs up indeed!

-Lisa Scott-Lee

At this stage I did a test. It was a bit runny. So...
MORE ICE CREAM
For some reason I felt the need to add more coffee and sugar. Absolutely no need as it tasted fine.
Then blend!
It was a bit thick this time, so I added a drop of milk and then blend for 4-5 seconds.

-Lee Latchford-Evans

Serve in a large Oxegen cup.
Sprinkle some Flake on the top of it.
And there you have it. Done. Finito. QED.





-Ian 'H' Watkins

Yeah, well I was never a huge H fan so lets leave him with the cleaning up. :)

Thanks for reading, folks!