Tickets for Oxegen on sale today

Tickets for Ireland 's only annual multi-stage music festival weekend went on sale this morning.

With last year’s 80,000-capacity event selling out days in advance, demand is expected to be high for the 2005 festival in Punchestown Racecourse, Naas.

Tickets are priced €64.50 (one day), €120 (two day) and €145 (two day including camping), and are available from Ticketmaster outlets.

It has just been announced that young upstarts Queens of the Stone Age will join music legends New Order on Oxegen’s growing bill of Irish and international stars.

Recipients of the ‘Godlike Genius’ award at this year’s NME Awards, New Order have been enjoying success and notoriety in the music industry for more than two decades. Their single “Blue Monday” has become the best-selling 12-inch ever. The band will be hoping for similar success with their new single, ‘Krafty’.

The appearance of Queens of the Stone Age at Oxegen will give Irish fans their first chance to hear material from the alternative band’s new album. “Lullabies to Paralize” is due to be released later this month.

Boasting five stages in total, Oxegen is likely to appeal to a wide range of music fans.

Rock fans will be looking forward to the appearance groups such as Foo Fighters, The Frames, The Killers, Keane, Audioslave and Ian Brown.

The choice for dance music fans is also expanding, with The Streets, The Prodigy, Erick Morillo and Slam confirmed for the Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 July event.