It's not a music festival

[Nowheels]

As a V Festival regular, I can safely say that V Festival (at least the Chelmsford one) has degenerated into some kind of chav fashion show, where young kids turn up in their best burberry clobber, get absolutely hooned, throw bottles at people and generally cause as much trouble as possible.

Pros

Most of the bands I saw were excellent

Cons

Massive queues for toilets in campsite

Massive queues for toilets in arena

Massive queues to get into the arena

Massive queues for food

Massive queues the bar

Massive queues for soft drinks

Appalling sound quality on the main stage

About 5,000 more people than the event can comfortably accomodate

Permanent underlying tension where you feel it could just kick off at any moment

Ive always tried to defend V Festival from people who always wanted to slag it off as a corporate whores day out, but for the first time in god knows how many years, I cant. Needless to say, I wont be going next year.

[Carpetburn]

Blimey, am I being way too tolerant, am I just lucky, or am I oblivious to some of this?

I have been going since 1996 too. Yes, the festival has changed and not for the better.

It's bigger and busier - too busy actually.

Yes, there is a growing element - especially on Saturdays at Chelmsford I think - who are going for reasons that have little to do with music and what I believe music festivals should be about.

But I go with a group of like-minded friends, I tend not to go where the undesirables are hanging out and we still have a good time - this weekend was better than I expected as it happens. We met some really nice people and had a good laugh. The only time I thought it would kick off was during Pendulum, but it was certainly no worse than going to Reading for instance.

I barely queued for a drink all weekend, never queued for food, and I didn't see any burberry (plenty of fake tan though ).

I would say the worse thing is the girls having to queue for loos. Cut the capacity or splash out - pardon the pun - on some more loos.

[Harry MonkFish]

The worst festival ever. Badly set up and populated by chav divs and posers who are more concerned about how they look, rather than enjoying the music. A most irritating festival, and thankfully my last ever visit to V. Truly awful.

[SpoonMan]

I agree. V has lost it's value. If more money was put into doubling the number of bars/toilets/security/sound then I might return, but it seems to gets worse every year.

I'll be giving it a miss next year and going to Rockwerchter instead.

Farewell V.

Spoonman.

[Funkyfairy!]

Blimey, am I being way too tolerant, am I just lucky, or am I oblivious to some of this?

I have been going since 1996 too. Yes, the festival has changed and not for the better.

It's bigger and busier - too busy actually.

Yes, there is a growing element - especially on Saturdays at Chelmsford I think - who are going for reasons that have little to do with music and what I believe music festivals should be about.

But I go with a group of like-minded friends, I tend not to go where the undesirables are hanging out and we still have a good time - this weekend was better than I expected as it happens. We met some really nice people and had a good laugh. The only time I thought it would kick off was during Pendulum, but it was certainly no worse than going to Reading for instance.

I barely queued for a drink all weekend, never queued for food, and I didn't see any burberry (plenty of fake tan though ).

I would say the worse thing is the girls having to queue for loos. Cut the capacity or splash out - pardon the pun - on some more loos.

[Chrispylondon]

I've been to the last 4 v's and also been to Reading a few times in the early 90's and also Glasto twice in the early 90's and twice in the last 4 years.

V this year was pretty damn good I thought. Having the arena opeon on Friday was a god send as meant that beer tokens could be bought early. Saved a huge queue along with the day trippers on Saturday. Less queues getting into the arena, I seem to remember it taking up to an hour a few years back, this year didn't take us 10 minutes and this was at midday.

The queues at the bar seemed to be less, but then again, I tended to be at stages for less popular acts. Also, it is very easy to smuggle vodka in a plastic bottle, so later in the evening just bought coke and topped it up with the old potato juice!

To say it's not a music festival is a bit strange, yes there are chavs, and yes there are celebs, but come on people, what do you expect? V isn't glasto, and it doesn't claim to be. It does exactly what it says on the tin. 2 days of music (pop, rock and indie) in a park with 80000 people. The only complaint I have is that they didn't empty the toilets overnight from Sunday into Monday. Not pleasent really.

I will in all probability be back next year, and am sure will have another excellent festival!

[vik74]

I don't think its acts that have changed so much (hell - I thought I was having some drug induced flashback during the James/Elbow segments yesterday) but the attitude to punters.

In the past few years festivals have become an event in their own right, you don't need to be a music fan - or even after a festival vibe ... they are fashionable in their own right. As a result some promoters think they can treat punters like crap and they will still sell out. I think they are probably right.

Lets be honest - most people posting who have only been to a few festivals had a great time .... it would be stupidly arrogant of me to say that made their opinions less valid.

Overall I agree with you ... but V has never been a cosy festival. Things change, but I hope they don't forget important things like safety and that in their rush for cash - the stupid crowding around the arena yesterday doesn't give me confidence.

[Tribble]

what a load of shit!