Do I need Oxegen?

I can recall that the 3rd of March of this year was a bitterly cold day. I remember that day specifically because at 8:30am, I was queuing up outside our local TicketMaster outlet for an Oxegen ticket in nothing more than a shirt and jeans. I’ll put it this way, even people wearing big thick fur coats were freezeing. I could barely hand over the money, not only because of the frostbite, but also because of the high price with the ticket coming in at a hefty €160.

A lot of time has passed since then and initially I planned on going with a few guys from school but as it transpired, they weren’t able to get their tickets in time. So then I made some plans with some lovely girls from the Presentation to go with them but in recent days it’s emerged that one guy in particular doesn’t want me accompanying his girlfriend to the concert and admittedly his fears aren’t unfounded. Any possibility of me saying “Of course I won’t go up with her” and then jumping on the bus with her dwindled when she told me that she was being forced to sell her ticket due to a current lack of funds to survive on. It just so happens that now I’m, rather ironically, in the same boat.

At the beginning of the Summer, I made a deal with myself that I’d only work weekends because after all, next year I’ll be saving for college and then I’ll be working for the rest of my life. This means that I don’t have much money spare. I’m guestimating that preparing for Oxegen would easily cost about €200 when you take in the cost of the tent, transport, food and of course, dhrink! Now thankfully, I’m getting Holiday Pay next week in work which should be in the region of €150 which would put me well on my way to having enough money for Oxegen. But €150 would add up to about 5 good nights out in the pub and add €200 or so that I’d get for selling my Oxegen ticket and suddenly the possibility for a week long bender presents itself.

I suppose the smart thing to do would be to get as much money as possible for the ticket and couple it with my holiday pay for me to able to live in relative financial security for the remainder of the Summer, but financial security is boring and a weekend up at Punchestown listening to an Astounding Lineup sounds just like what the doctor ordered. Well it would be if I was a doctor!

I’ll definitely have to make my decision in the next few days but I have a feeling that no matter what decision I’ll make, I’ll have some regrets!