Arcade Fire to headline Oxegen festival

CANADIAN BAND Arcade Fire are the surprise headliners of the first day of the Oxegen music festival ahead of superstar rapper Jay-Z.

Oxegen will be Arcade Fire's first major performance of the year and they will showcase their new album The Suburbswhich is due out in August.

Arcade Fire’s first Irish performance at Electric Picnic in 2005 became the stuff of legend and they were big enough to hold an open-air concert in Phoenix Park in 2007, but Jay-Z is arguably the biggest rap act in the world with the highest profile, especially as a result of his marriage to Beyonce.

He confounded those who thought he had no place at a festival dominated by indie bands by successfully headlining Glastonbury in 2008.

Muse will headline on the Saturday night leading to an interesting clash with The Black Eyed Peas headlining on the second stage now known as the Vodafone Stage.

The presence of rapper Dizzee Rascal and Florence and the Machine following each other on the main stage on Saturday night is likely to lead to speculation that they will do a duet as they did at the Brit Awards.

Rapper Eminem will close the festival which takes place between Friday, July 9th and Sunday, July 11th at Punchestown Racecourse in Co Kildare.

Villagers, which are arguably the hottest Irish act at the moment with their Becoming a Jackaldebut album topping the charts, will play the Hot Press Academy tent on Friday night. Mumford & Sons, the highly-regarded English folk-rock act, will be the headliners on Sunday night in the Heineken Green Spheres tent.