THE Oxegen music festival has been branded a success, with the organisers and gardaí having quashed fears that the 80,000 revellers could cause damage to the town of Naas.
Tidy Towns chairman Cllr Seamie Moore has praised Oxegen organisers MCD and the gardaí for their roles in ensuring that Naas remained orderly and tidy throughout the weekend. “There was a great effort made,” he stated, noting that complaints made after the recent AC/DC concert had been addressed. “There was an obvious extra amount of stewards at the bussing areas,” he said. “They extended the bus parking and collection areas. They also introduced barrier controls for an extended distance so people joined an orderly queue.”
He continued: “They had displayed bins for those who had drink with them and weren’t able to take it on board.
The bins were at the head of the queue exact-ly as I had indicated and requested.”
He also praised the company for putting portaloos in place in the town centre, saying it took “the pressure off the doorways” of local shops. “I can only take it that somebody has definitely responded to the cries of distress that were made,” commented Cllr Moore, saying he hoped that such moves would continue in the future.
“They put in a big effort... it can only be an improvement on what happened at the AC/DC concert,” said Cllr Moore.
Meanwhile, down in Punchestown itself gardaí said it was business as usual, with the amount of arrests slight-ly down on last year. Sergeant Tim Burke of Naas garda station said: “Overall we were very happy with the way it went. The traffic management plan was very successful there were no major hold-ups.”
He said that gardaí were placed at junctions around the town to make sure that travel was as smooth as possible.
There were 375 drugs seizures over the weekend, with 349 of these being for simple drug possession and 26 for the highest level of drug possession.
There were 114 arrests in total this year, slightly less than in 2008. Out of this there were 43 arrests for public order offences; 26 arrests for drug dealing; eight arrests for theft; 21 arrests for drink driving; 10 arrests for assault; one arrest for criminal damage; two arrests for interfering with a car and three arrests for possession of an offensive weapon.
Drink driving arrests were higher than last year while drug dealing was slightly up.
“Overall considering the fact that close to 80,000 people were on site, most people were very well behaved,” said Sgt Burke.
There were extra garda patrols on the site and there were also gardaí on patrol on foot in the campsites at night time.
There was one serious incident that took place on Friday 11 July when a man was allegedly assaulted in the Oxegen blue car park. The 27-year-old received some injuries and was treated in St James’ Hospital in Dublin where he is expected to make a full recovery. A man was arrested shortly after the incident and was taken to Naas garda station. He was released without charge on Saturday for the preparation of a file for the DPP.