In years gone by, I’ve eagerly anticipated Oxegen each Summer, purely for the experience. This is the third year in a row that I have a ticket but it will also be only my first time ever attending it. Be it friends dropping out, getting an offer of twice the face value of the ticket or being in a financial vice grip the week before the event, things just haven’t ever gone as planned. With about 11 hours left before I scurry down to the bus station, I just hope there’s no proverbial spanner thrown into the works!

I’m due to get a bus to New Ross and from there I’ll get a lift up to Punchestown with a friend… in a full car. MCD, the promoters, have been really pushing the whole idea of “Car Pooling” this year but I think that whoever had the brainwave of getting 4 people to stuff themselves into a car along with rucksacks, tents and slabs upon slabs of beer should be shot! I’m trying my best to pack light, but even still, I think I’ll have to bring all my childhood Tetris skills to the table if I don’t want to find myself in a position that even a contortionist would be proud of.

The Oxegen forums were the first place I looked to for advice on what to bring. Some people have even made checklists of essentials and you have to pity the poor women who have made lists which are about quadruple the size of that of the guys. I wouldn’t even bring some of the things that have been suggested if I was moving country, let alone going away for a weekend. I’ve even seen a full-sized mirror being suggested! I eventually found a somewhat realistic list of bare essentials and made my way down to Tesco to try and stock up.

Ranking highly in my list of essentials is alcohol. I’ve decided to go down the route of drinking Buckfast. It doesn’t really cover myself in glory given it’s reputation, but on the other hand I don’t want to polish off a bottle of cheap vodka and end up covering myself in something that’s certainly not glory (but very chunky and full of carrot like bits) on one or more of the nights. Next on my list was Duck Tape. When someone comes flying through my tent and tears the arse out of it, I want to be able to have some chance of being able to go into MacGyver mode and fix it. I then went looking condoms.

This is where I got a bit apprehensive about throwing all these items into the one basket and buying them in my local shop. Buckfast, Duck Tape and Condoms. Riiiiight. There’s nothing I could possibly do to change the very blunt statement that those three items sitting beside each other make. I debated with myself for a few seconds before deciding to leave the Durex for later as I quite like being able to shop in the City!

I am going for the music though. Honest.