The good, the bad, the ugly.

[geeman]

What was your highlight, what was a disappointment, and what left you absolutely livid.

The good - Close run but the biggest surprise was Happy Mondays, really expected them to be a shambles but Mr Ryder was coherent and the set was fantastic (close run with Elbow)

The bad - Oasis screwing up my timetable, if only Blur had been booked instead. One bloke had a t-shirt with the slogan 'Oasis are [expletive deleted]', and 'No Definitely Maybe About it...' on the back. As much as I love(d) Oasis I can't disagree.

The ugly - Yet again the general organisation/cutting corners/ignorance/arrogance of Vfest Inc. We all know what we're getting with V, it's commercial, but if they would only spend a little of that money hiring decent staff to marshall the whole thing. Fortunately the good humour and spirit of most of those attending means it was another positive experience.

[JoeRhys]

The Good - Calvin Harris, The end of The Streets (although the rest of the Streets was pretty good as well), Snow Patrol doing a performance Oasis could only dream of, getting a picture with Stewie off Family Guy during Biffy

The Bad - Oasis choosing to stay up till the early hours drinking and then deciding they couldn't be arsed to play to us. (On the subject of Oasis t-shirts, I seen one which read 'Noasis - Cancelled due to constipation, they're full of shit...')

The Ugly - My sunburn, A baked potato with curry I had on sunday afternoon, Every portaloo I ruined after said baked potato, Buying the wrong wristband which meant i had to climb under fence to get into red campsite...

[geeman]

The Ugly - My sunburn

[ingear658]

The Good - Calvin Harris, The end of The Streets (although the rest of the Streets was pretty good as well), Snow Patrol doing a performance Oasis could only dream of, getting a picture with Stewie off Family Guy during Biffy

The Bad - Oasis choosing to stay up till the early hours drinking and then deciding they couldn't be arsed to play to us. (On the subject of Oasis t-shirts, I seen one which read 'Noasis - Cancelled due to constipation, they're full of shit...')

The Ugly - My sunburn, A baked potato with curry I had on sunday afternoon, Every portaloo I ruined after said baked potato, Buying the wrong wristband which meant i had to climb under fence to get into red campsite...

[Harry MonkFish]

Good-Snow Patrol, really not what I was expecting and although I like them I didnt see them as the type to perform. Always had it on my bedtime playlist. Dizzee, not my cup of tea normally but enjoyed the performance. The specials...just getting to see them. Not too much w*nky throwing things and no piss chucking (that I saw)

The bad-Carling tasting like piss and flat within minutes of buying. The queue for beer tokens on the friday, the giant yorkshires that looked great and tasted like dog chews. The mentalist security in the yellow camp site (although one did get confused when he asked "have you seen a man in a mexican hat" and the answer was what would he look like if he took it off, "er.....I suppose...a man").

The ugly-The amount of people passed out . My girlfriends face after 30 minutes of ALAN and GREEN ARMY and then waking up to see me chatting away to a group of girls...asking why I was wearing an african dress. People scavaging the tents and mess for free beer when everyone had gone home on monday. the people spending more time collecting cups than watching music (where it takes 35 just to get one free drink...well thats worth it then) The lack of anything to do after 11. JAMES and the singers tache...worst act I saw, closely followed by Katy Perry.

[jjbeeson]

The Good: Sunday night: Gary Go followed by Elbow followed by Keane followed by staying up all night and following some guy with a guitar playing all round red campsite =)

The Bad: Not much really apart from dragging all my stuff from the drop off point to red campsite.

The Ugly: My mate passing out in his own sick sunday night then having to sit next to him in the car on the journey back

[geofelgie]

The Good:

Snow Patrol showing Oasis up big style. Paolo Nutini surprising me. The Script REALLY surprising me. Sunshine Underground, Red Light Company, Elbow, Athlete, The Proclaimers, Lily Allen, Killers.

The Bad:

Sound near V stage - and the mindless idiots who pushed to get hear the front only to then spend the whole time talking (especially during Elbow) - actually they should be under the Ugly.

Ocean Colour Scene - had expected much better.

The Ugly:

Missing MGMT because of some northern lump of nappy-filler.

Queue to the arena Sat meant I missed exit calm.

Not having a beer friday as it would've taken hours to get tokens, let alone handle the bar.

[mcalli2008]

The Good - I thought The Streets were fantastic, although they could have been given a slot on a better stage - it was rammed in the Arena!!

The Bad - Oasis no show. Have seen them live plenty of times, but really wanted to see them in festival mode!! It'll be a long time til I'll get the chance for this now! And I had to put up with trying to squeeze through to MGMT and could then only stand outside the Arena!

The Ugly - The bars were a mess - ran out of almost everything. Although I drink lager which they always had, some of the people I was with don't like it. They ran out of Breezers, Cider & Wine on both days at some bars!! Also, got crushed at the front of one of the queues and security threatened to close it because it was that bad! Then they walked away because they couldn't control it!

[rockinthecasbah]

The Good- The atmosphere in the arena when MGMT played 'Kids,' the sublime Elbow, finding twenty quid's worth in unused beer tokens on the floor.

The Bad- The reaction when Biffy Clyro played '57,' which saw no-one other than me and my mate showing anything other than indifference.

The Ugly- The majority of the people there solely for Oasis, which led to our decision to see MGMT instead.

[plectrumknight]

The Good: having a great time with friends, including bumping into everyone i wanted to see after my mobile died. The weather. Goldie looking chain, James, MGMT playing live forever, happy mondays, the saturdays providing a bit of a laff. Thieving chavs being ejected.

The bad: Oasis no show. Sound on the main stage. Saturdays line up. few acts being put on in the arena and then far too many people trying to get in. Ocean colour scene not getting close to last years performance.opening my bag upon arrival to discover my strongbow had fallen out

The ugly: thieving rude boys on red campsite ruining the weekend for few of our neighbours.

The queue to get into the arena on saturday - and then to get back to site that evening.

the car park exits monday morning.

[godmutha]

The Good: The Twang!, Biffy, meeting a bunch of fantastic people, V healthy (even though it was a rip off from T in the Park), laughing so much it still hurts now, the weather (about time)

The Bad: The heavy handed tw@t of a security guard woman searching me a little too much on the way into the arena on sunday, 3 idiots tryin to topple toilets and robbin from tents, wasnt too impressed with oasis, general organisation and V not giving a shit about us who pay their wages...lol

The Ugly: The idiots that decided to throw stuff into the crowds from which a can hit me and a bottle hit one of the other lasses in our group, me managing to find the one bit of mud in the entire arena and falling ass first into it after trying to jump it and misjudging....heh (quite funny in the end though)

[staffsknot]

The Good - The Specials, the indie disco on Friday, The Killers, Dizzy Rascal (not my thing but he rocked the place), Lightning Seeds, OCS, Razorlight (surprisingly), Natalie Imbruglia, Jet, The Noisettes, Oasis (for Oasis standards they were great), meeting up with mates and having a blast, random entertainment, Hippy Village (aka V Healthy)

The Bad - Getting moved from a close car park all the way to south on Friday and then getting constantly searched as went back for kit from the car (after having to get a wristband to be let out), not having time to say hello to all the Efesters

The Ugly - Having to help a mother move her drunk teenage daughter before The Specials (in a real state) and knowing that woman's festival was ruined - her one band...

[MOLLYJESS]

The GOOD - KILLERS, SNOW PATROL, Athlete, Paulo Nutini, Specials, Script, Lily Allen - just having a fantastic time with friends, finding my friends just before Killers when I thought I'd lost them all, the fairground on Friday night (not that I went on much!) catching Elbow's last song, so chuffed. Getting on hubby's shoulder's during Snow Patrol's Run, such a great feeling

THE BAD - Missing Starsailor who I really wanted to see, Calvin Harris (not as good as he usually is), OCS terrible sound on main stage, people waking up too early in the mornings!!! Oasis no show, but Snow Patrol more than made up for it.

THE UGLY - queuing for four hours out of red car park, setting up 3 tents in the pouring rain, seeing some young girl vomiting at 11pm on the Friday night!! TOILETS!!

[princess9785]

The Good: Sunday night: Gary Go

[the beast]

the good. pendulum, elbow, the killers, the twang, snow patrol, james (and basically eveyone i watched saturday even bjorn again was a laugh)

the bad, taylor swift. just couldnt see the point any one of the lads taking the knock on both saturday and sunday in front of the main stage.

the ugly, why oh why oh why have v decided to get shut of half of the toilets in the camp sites(money of course) but it was quite literally taking the pi$$

[goanmad]

The Good: Pendulum, The Twang, VV Brown, The Specials, Elbow, King Blues, Peter Doherty, Jet.

The weather.

No wellies, ponchos or woolies all weekend.

Free Rowntrees Randoms.

The money we made collecting cups.

Our suntans.

Bumping into people we met at the Kent Hop Farm Festival.

The Bad: The annual "random" police drug search.

The queues for the toilet.

Failing to meet our mates, yet again.

The line-up - two hours of mediocrity then 4 decent acts on at the same time.

The choice of either Carling,Strongbow or Bacardi Breezer at the bar. Oh for a Kopparberg!

Hair straightening booths! At a festival? What have we come to?

The girl from the Noisettes saying that we weren't "as lively as the Essex lot".

The Ugly: The 7 hour journey to get 20 miles down the road.

Queuing 40mins for beer tokens only to join another queue for beer.

Being covered in piss during the Killers.

The state of the campsite on monday morning - haven't those scumbags heard of bin bags?

The huge chav element.

[Tunster]

The Good: 2ManyDJs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blew every other act out of the water but worryingly, no-one else here has mentioned them. Also enemy, calvin harris, dizzee rascal, pendulum all being very good. Snow Patrol royally kicking Oasis' arses. Also loving the first time camping experience. End of the festival and getting picked up the monday morning; helped and chatted up this bird who wasn't sure where to go. Got her number, result!

The Bad: Not enough toilets in the campsite. Plenty more in the arena thank-god! But why was there only one water filling station on the whole of the red campsite? I think I read somewhere there was a reason, but I'm sure it's to do with the food stalls wanting to sell water at 2 or 3 quid a piece. Typical beer and piss throwing. V Stage at Chelmsford needs a rethink too!

The Ugly: Huge beer queues, Sunday night seeming to be a very volatile night on the red campsite with fires going up everywhere. The main site seemed to be more crowded than last year.

V really needs to bump up and improve the line-up next year. Also, the indie disco in the arena was crap for the Friday campers. Maybe not book some good local DJs or get a couple acts to come down?

[MilkyJoe]

THE GOOD:

*Staying in a hotel 5 miles away on the Thursday night to set off at 8:15 on Friday and more or less driving straight in

*Sunsheeeeeine

*The Last Republic

*The Day We Caught The Train

*James

*Elbow

*Paulo Nutini

*Snow Patrol clearly loving it

*Liam's swagger, still got attitude after all these years!

*Dizzy Rascal, same as Staffs not my thing but he really puts a gig on

*The Wombats

*Raving in the Bacardi tent took me back 20 years!

*The Specials

*The mighty mighty Killers, how good were they!

*Free Mojitos!

*Taking our own alcohol in so we didn't have to stand in those obscene queues

*Glorious showers on Saturday and Sunday mornings

*Our own bacon sandwiches

*My shiny new Outwell 6 man tent that somebody had left behind!

THE BAD:

*Charlies Cafe Bar being like a morgue on the Thursday night despite every single person staying there going to V the next day

*Beardyman not playing on time so missing him

*Those obscene queues

*The piss! despite many peoples fears that it would be a strictly Oasis thing seeing just as many if not more bottles and cups thrown during many other acts

*Not finding the Randoms till Sunday

*Oasis' sound man

*Not enough toilets

*The 1 gate open at the top of the Arena after the bands had finished

THE UGLY:

*The long walk back to the car to get the beer only to be told that we couldn't get out until we had been all the way back and got our wristbands then having to walk all the way back to the car again and getting caught in the only torrential downpour of the weekend!

*The bar closing at 11pm on the Sunday night

*The pikeys charging 30 quid to go on that bungee ball thing and it only lasting 50 seconds! Who in their right mind would pay that!

*Leaving at 3pm on Monday to avoid the traffic and still taking 2 hours to hit the M6

*Getting my shiny new Outwell 6 man tent home to find that it smells of wee and spending Tuesday cleaning it!!

[geeman]

The Good: 2ManyDJs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blew every other act out of the water but worryingly, no-one else here has mentioned them.

[sjc0102]

Good - Snow Patrol pulling a massively wicked set out of the bag instead of Oasis, being down the front for The Streets, watching nearly everyone I wanted to, meeting loads of random people, having wicked neighbours in the 'Quiet Zone', being with mates and having loads of fun.

The bad - trying to pitch my tent when freakish wind and rain came over Hylands park, me and everything getting soaked, the Red campsite toilets.

the Ugly - having to call an ambulance for a girl near us who was choking Monday morning.

[Bunny]

The Good - Fatboy Slim Saturday night, great knees up!

The Bad - deciding to go with the rest of my group to watch Katy Perry instead of James. Now she was BAD! (By the way, I only did this because I had gone off to watch several bands without them already and they are pop freaks!) Also wnding up watching Keane on the Sunday night (although they were not bad at all) - it was not on plans and left site at about 10.

The Ugly - I said it last year, and I'll say it again, the new stage layout at Hylands Park and the general services provided. The Main Stage accoustics are awful unless you are front centre. The "in and out" system to the Arena area is terrible - we went through to watch the Streets and it took us nearly 20 minutes. In there only 2 food stalls and one bar!!! The bar queue was about 30-35 people deep - we gave up, but took our friends 50 minutes for one drink!!! The queues for the loos were worse again.

I think the ugliest thing overall is how many people V now try and cram into Hylands Park (especially Sunday) - MONEY, MONEY, MONEY - sacrificing the enjoyment of a lot of people who go there.

Even if V pull something special out of the bag next year - I will not be attending as I cannot stand the constant strugdle to do anything or go anywhere.....

Other than that, I got drunk and had a great time with friends!!!