Despite all the chatter about recession doing the rounds, the Irish appetite for festival fever has hardly dampened significantly this year. Sure, they may not have sold out as quickly as previous years, yet, incredibly there are said to be more music festivals per capita in Ireland than any other country in the world.

Perhaps, after the post-Féile lull, the event that rejuvenated the idea of an Irish rock festival was Oxegen, or Witnness as it was called when it kicked off in 2000. Now in its ninth year, the festival takes over Punchestown again this weekend, with what has to be said to be quite a strong line-up.

True, nobody (well, not this writer anyway) really needs another Irish festival appearance from the frankly over-rated Kings Of Leon, the bland rock of Stereophonics, or a glimpse of Paddy Casey’s curly locks. Nevertheless, proper dissection of the schedule reveals an edgier Oxegen, not just aimed at those thinking of celebrating the end of their school days in style.

With the exception of the aforementioned brothers Followill, the Main Stage headliners are incredibly strong: R.E.M.’s recent ‘Accelerate’ was a step in the right direction, doing some work to heal the damage caused by their turgid past couple of releases, while Rage Against The Machine have always been an incendiary live act, and their unexpected reunion tour has generally got the thumbs up. As long as Zack de la Rocha can behave himself, the prospect of seeing R.A.T.M. is a mouth-watering one, particularly for anybody who grew up in the nineties.

The Pet Sounds Stage, named after the Today FM show not the Beach Boys album, is where I’d be setting my compass towards for the majority of the weekend. With a reputation for churning out somewhat shambolic live shows, Chan Marshall aka Cat Power will be more than worth investigating for the drama alone; however, if she is on form, hopefully her set will pluck more from career highlight albums ‘You Are Free’ and ‘The Greatest’, as opposed to her nice but over-hyped covers album ‘Jukebox’.

Just before she takes to that very stage, Aphex Twin appears. The electronic oddball, born Richard D. James in Limerick of all places (although he did leave when he was a baby), does not exactly make that many outings – whether it will be a DJ or live set remains to be seen, but any chance to see this reclusive innovator perform is a genuine rarity.

Also recommended to check out on the Friday are Belgian art-rockers dEUS (O2 Stage), who despite a couple of dodgy albums, are still enthralling live, particularly if they dip into their mid-nineties heyday material. Meanwhile, New York’s Battles (Pet Sounds Stage) will be proving that people are not idiots, and can both appreciate and dance to complexly crafted guitar (amongst other things) music; their album ‘Mirrored’ was certainly one of last year’s highlights, but they have managed to take this to another level with their high octane live shows. Do not miss under any circumstances.