Carry on camping

The Oxegen campsite opens at 12 noon on Thursday July 9 and will remain in operation until 6pm on Monday July 13. There are several options for festival goers.

Traditional Camping
You can do camping the hard way or the easy way. The hard way being just you, your tent and the elements.
Or you can take the easy option because lets face it, even Bear Grylls needs his comforts. In both the red and blue campsites, Scouting Ireland are there to lend a hand if you don’t know your fly-sheet from your groundsheet. Once you are set up, the campsite is your oyster.
If you forgot your tent or don’t feel like lugging it all the way from home, you can buy a cheap pop-up tent from www.joe-bananas.co.uk and pick it up on your arrival.

Campervans
A step up from the tent village is the campervan site. The only hitch is that you will need a campervan. If you have cleared that obstacle, then all you need is your weekend ticket and your campervan ticket to get into the site. It will be a short walking distance from the main campsites so you can go visit your friends if you want to see how they’re doing, slumming it. Electricity will not be provided onsite and tents or gazebos aren’t allowed as they are a fire hazard.

Specialised Camping
If having a child, being a child, being in a wheelchair or nursing a broken leg won’t stop you from going to a music festival, then you can book a space for either the family campsite or the special needs campsite. For the family campsite, children must be under 12 (please do not pick up a random child to avail of this site). There are no facilities available for babies or small children and they will not be allowed into the main arena.
The special needs site has parking, wheelchair toilets and a facility for recharging wheelchairs. There will be an onsite manager to answer any questions.

Luxury Camping
Ah luxury camping. Whether you’re in a teepee, a hut, a ship-shaped cabin or a pod-pad, luxury camping is expensive but my, is it a cushy number. Ranging in price from €270 to over €1,000, you must pre-book from www.boutiquecamping.net, www.podpads.com, www.myhab.com or www.tangerinefields.co.uk.

Facilities
There will be personal lockers available for storing small items like wallets, keys, medicine, phones or mp3 players. Better still, they have a 12v cigarette power outlet for charging phones. You can book your locker online at www.lockerhouse.co.uk for in and around €15. It may seem pricey but you may regret not doing so if somebody runs off with your iPod and identity.
In all of the campsites there will be free hot showers, phone charging facilities, toilets, drinking water facilities, first aid and welfare tents.
There will be Centra shops onsite just in case you forgot any of the essentials or just really, really need a packet of crisps.
This year, the campsites have increased seating areas and designated barbeque areas. Perfect if you begin to suffer from tent-fever. And if having a nice sit-down doesn’t cure that, there is also the Pull Parlour which provides a full range of beauty treatments.

Camping Entertainment
Bui Bolg, the lads that brought you Oxegen Stonehenge last year, are back and they will have 20 humongous art pieces throughout the campsites for you to feast your eyes on.
On the Thursday night, there will be a host of cover bands to fulfil your music needs until the festival begins. From Definitely Might Be (Oasis) to AC/DC’s tribute band Hells Bells, you’ll briefly wonder why you need to see the real thing at all.
You can divide the rest of your time between the XBOX Live Stage, the glorious headphone disco and the onsite funfairs. And if you find the time, you might just wander into the main arena to catch a few bands.