REM To Headline Oxegen Festival

American rockers REM have been confirmed as headliners at this year's Oxegen festival.
The band, who release their new album 'Accelerate' on April 1, will headline the event on July 12.
The festival will take place for the first time over three days, from July 11 – 13 at Punchestown Racecourse in Naas, Co. Kildare. Fellow US band Kings of Leon will headline the opening night of the festival, while the closing night headliners have still to be announced.
REM frontman Michael Stipe attended last year's festival as a fan along with the band's guitarist Peter Buck and the pair are reported to have enjoyed the festival so much that they were keen to return and perform there.
Promoters MCD are billing Oxegen 2008 as the 'Greatest Rock N' Roll Weekend of the Year' and further acts are due to be announced over the coming months.
This year's festival will feature all the usual attraction, including a funfair, complete with giant ferris wheel, rollercoasters and dodgems; circus performers, who will juggle, hula-hoop and walk-on stilts around the site throughout the weekend; and the food villages.
The festival's green campsite will be kitted out with yurts, podpads and teepees, so that campers can turn up to a ready-made home for the weekend, while campers in the red campsite will also have the use of hot showers.
With the festival extended to three days this year, the campsite will be open from Thursday, so fans wishing to camp then will need to purchase a Thursday camping ticket in advance for an additional €20.
Festival-goers registered on the Oxegen website will have limited pre-sale access to tickets from March 3 at 8am until 8pm on March 6 - these are subject to availability and limited to four tickets per person. Tickets then go on general sale on March 7 at 8am.
Keen to encourage festivalgoers to make Oxegen as green as possible, organisers are urging fans to use public transport when travelling to Oxegen.
Dublin Bus and Marathon Travel will be providing a range of shuttle services to Oxegen and advance tickets will be available to all ticket holders well ahead of Oxegen 2008.
Fans can visit the website at: www.oxegen.ie for more information.