Dizzee Rascal wows on first day of Chelmsford V Festival

The first day of music at the Hylands site started off with a very damp start, to say the least. The arena doors opened at midday and by 1.30pm the skies had well and truly opened.

After faffing about and getting tokens for booze (V is one of those festivals that operates on the system of buying tokens from kiosks to trade in for drinks at the bars) my first port of call was the king of beatbox, Beardyman, who was playing under a tent with people trying to ram themselves in for cover from the rain.

It was a talented performance with drum n bass beats and reggae tunes created by the use of Beardyman's mouth alone but the rain was a serious problem and at one point I had 3 strangers huddled under me and my friends umbrella just outside the tent.

The standard uniform for most of the girls at the festival seemed to be denim shorts and vest tops so there was a multitude of screams and flailing arms as the weather turned.

We retreated into the champagne bar tent, as people used whatever they could find to cover themselves from the torrential pour. Once it had died down we ventured out to the sounds of Bruno Mars' sweet voice on the V Stage.

He seemed to have some sort of power over the weather as, as his set carried on the rain began to cease and there were lots of people dancing towards his stage. He had a small crowd but provided a pleasing performance.

Making my way to The Arena Stage on the other side of the site I got a feel for the layout between the four stages. There were plenty of small little bars and stalls offering all sorts of services from face paint to beauty treatments, as well as fairground rides and plenty of food choices.

In general it was a much more relaxed and fun festival than it had been when I went about 4 years ago.

I took the controversial choice of seeing US rapper Wiz Khalifa over our own homebred talent Example, and was surprised that others had made the same decision with the tent for Khalifa being impressively packed, considering the circumstances.

He proved that he could recreate the sounds on his albums perfectly as he rapped and sang live to the level you hear on his recordings and the tent filled up as he continued; by the time he played his hit 'Black and Yellow' the whole crowd was jumping.

Larger than life Jessie J took her position on a chaise longue nursing her broken leg before providing a comical and stunning performance. Highlights included her asking for a chair to sit on as lying down wasn't doing anything for her voice.

She was also visibly teary when she spoke of being in the crowd at V the year before watching Paloma Faith and wishing she could be onstage, and how all her family were there to support her in her hometown of Essex; it was clear this particular performance meant a lot to her.

The arena was absolutely packed for her set and her powerful voice filled the whole area going from low to high effortlessly and producing stunning sounds. For the finale, she played her latest tune 'Who's Laughing Now' and brought on 'mini Jessie J' as featured in the video onstage who wowed the crowd dancing about as big Jessie belted out the lyrics.

For the third time this summer I saw Katy B, and for the third time she proved that she is a star to watch out for this year. Her set just gets the crowd jumping about to the dance beats and garage tunes and not only has she got the voice of an angel, she's also extremely sweet and humble when talking to the audience.

The evening's entertainment came to an end with Dizzee Rascal on the V stage and I honestly cannot say enough about this performance. There was a time when I was sick of seeing Dizzee's name on festival line-ups because he was such a hard-worker I would see him everywhere.

I could not have been happier to witness this performance though as I'd forgotten just how good he is – as a lyricist, an entertainer, a crowd-pleaser, and a general inspiration I have to give it to Mr Rascal.

Along with a DJ and backing singers he played a 75 minute set of a vast array of his musical career reaching back to his first album and tunes such as 'I Luv U' and 'Jezebel' right up to the modern sounds of 'Holiday' and presenting his smash hit by goading the crowd "Are you ready to go fucking bonkers?!"

The light show, fireworks and lasers that were involved in the stage production of his set were epically amazing as well, and aided in getting the already hyped up crowd even more energetic.

It really was a fantastic set and I was so glad I'd chosen that stage to end the day on, as it was a perfect finale.

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