Performing at Oxegen 2011

The sound of thundering hooves has been known regularly shakes Punchestown Racecourse to its very foundations, but the massed ranks of charging thoroughbreds could never unleash the kind of seismic turbulence experienced by the venue in July — 2011 marks the arrival of the eighth Oxegen Festival, with a line-up for the ages, and here we survey the headliners, kicking off in volcanic style with Foo Fighters ("Everlong"), and the independent womanly magnificence of Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". Coldplay reminds us of glorious beginnings with "Yellow", and the Black Eyed Peas supercharge the party with "I Gotta Feeling".

The undercard is above average at Oxegen 2011 — check out our Next Steps.

How massive is Oxegen 2011? Well, just take a look at the way the headliners bleed into the supporting card so that you can barely see the join. Arctic Monkeys make their still-strong presence felt here with "Flourescent Adolescent" — a syllable-crunching tour de force from frontman Alex Turner (written in collaboration with former girlfriend Johanna Bennett) featured on 2007's second studio album, Favourite Worst Nightmare — the Strokes keep their post-new-wave momentum rolling with "Taken for a Fool" from 2011's sharply defined Angles, and Jessie J continues to prove herself queen of the modern lyrical conceit with the supremely catchy "Price Tag".

Irish artists lend a suitable Celtic flavour to our Oxegen 2011 Deep Cuts.

Never mind the quality, feel the green . . . Oxegen 2011 goes local here in Deep Cuts, with a lively bunch of irish bands, including Dublin's Fight Like Apes, who whisk up a lovely synth-punk noise on "Tie Me Up with Jackets" from their 2008 debut album, Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion, and County Galway's the Saw Doctors, bringing the craic with "Joyce Country Ceili Band". Los Angeles Celtic hip-hop kings, House of Pain, refuse to stint the addictive pogo of "Jump Around" almost two decades on from its original release, while Glasvegas gives the Celtic connection a Scottish twist with "Daddy's Gone".

Oxegen stakes its rightful place among the elite of monster festivals for 2011 with a line-up meaty and beaty enough to set the world salivating — superstars, legends and local heroes assemble at Punchestown Racecourse in July for three days of sonic excellence and aural overload, and we're sure to have included a chunky fistful of your favourites among these Essentials. A couple of famous frontmen head into new territory — Brandon Flowers goes solo ("Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas") and Liam Gallagher heads up his new band (Beady Eye) — R&B's unstoppable superwoman (Beyoncé) shares the occasion with a phoenix from the ashes of Nirvana (Dave Grohl, fronting Foo Fighters), and Slash gets busy with his axe ("Promise"). It's big, it's jolly, it's green and it kicks off right here.