Weston Kids Fest - Awful

[steph78]

I'm 35, been for 6 hrs and will never go again, 90% full of kids / chavs with awful attitudes, last night (Beyonce) topped it waited 5 hrs right hand side of v stage chavs bullying / arguing us to hand over our spaces then ganging up and pushing us forward to crush us pushing my hubby out then getting more people to surround them he left but I thought he had just wanted to leave, 4 fights around us 1 girl fainted, Beyonce 30 mins late watched 2 song n felt myself nearly fainting had to fight way through the crowd, went past Steve Angello on 4 stage near empty, V more keen on profit than replacing beady eye put risk on the beyonce crowd and being at the front it could have been a disaster!! Slept in the car for 4 hrs last night as the had no sleep for 2 nights because of constant pointless screaming from all the teens, crowds not friendly and moody!! Guess V has wanted this so they can put cheap headline pop slots and they will sell out for loads less WELL DONE V FEST!!!!!!

[adam1234]

Slept in the car for 4 hrs last night as the had no sleep for 2 nights because of constant pointless screaming from all the teens WELL DONE V FEST!!!!!!

[theramm]

Jesus wept! Look at the line-up, what were you expecting? A crowd full of 25-40 year olds with a music collection akin to John Peel? V is 'T4 On The Beach' with tents these days. Going to V them moaning about it being full of pr!cks & the organisers being more interested in profit than customer experience is as shirtsighted as it gets. Looks at the other fests around the UK, then ask yourself why V charge the same for 2 days as most 3 days fests.

[efcfanwirral]

I had a great time despite my music tastes being totally different to the majority of v goers - I had a guitar music festival with energetic crowds, with a bit of paloma faith and Gabrielle aplin thrown in. It's what you make of it I think.

And on your beady eye point, anyone who would have seen them will have been in the arena watching ocean colour scene. It was reasonably busy (more than I expected it to be) but was still quite quiet. Beyonce was going to be rammed whatever happened.

[efcfanwirral]

Oh and 'cheap pop headline acts' is far far from 'cheap'. It'd cost a lot more to book beyonce or any of these popular DJs than it would to book most guitar acts

[Toon Army]

You waited for 5 hrs for beyonce ? That's just mental, I wouldn't wait that long for a good act.

I had a great weekend, loved every minute and I'm 53 btw

I stayed in a hotel, nowt like a full English after a good nights sleep to set you up for the day

[Rose-Colored Boy]

Friday afternoon

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Friday evening

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Saturday morning

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Saturday afternoon

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Saturday evening

Cool kids: "Glory Glory Man Uniiiiited'

Me: ".."

Sunday morning

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Sunday afternoon

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Sunday evening

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: "FUCK OFF ALAN!"

Having said that, I had a really good time.

[mrtourette]

Unfortuately I don't think the OP is going to get much sympathy as these sorts of tales are quite common for V, although how tolerant you are of them and how you let them affect you differs from person to person, and how exposed you are to them completely down to luck.

[mrtourette]

Friday afternoon

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Friday evening

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Saturday morning

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Saturday afternoon

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Saturday evening

Cool kids: "Glory Glory Man Uniiiiited'

Me: ".."

Sunday morning

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Sunday afternoon

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: ".."

Sunday evening

Cool kids: "ALAN!'

Me: "FUCK OFF ALAN!"

Having said that, I had a really good time.

[Bunny]

The V crowd these days are terrible - if you watch certain acts..... Ocean Colour Scene was one of the best festival sets I've been too, great crowd, brilliant atmosphere - completely Chavless - Rudimental on the other hand were the other end of the scale.

If my wife didn't like Rudimental so much I'd have been watching Lianne La Havas - but it was the only Chav act I watched are was the only low point of the festival for me.

The majority of main artists are not targeted at traditional music fans - simply a pop audience - however, you can still visit V and have a great weekend by simply steering clear of these acts. However, if you do want to see someone like Rudimental, Beyonce, Calvin Harris etc... the crowd is just part of it and it is something that you just learn to live with.

Although I agree that in my 15 years of going to V, the low life in the crowd has certainly reached a new low.

P.S. totally agree with the camping/hotel point. I haven't camped since 2007 and always stay in a hotel now as I'm 35 and just can't be bothered with the hassle of camping anymore!!! If you want to camp, don't expect a good nights sleep!

[Rose-Colored Boy]

For me the crowds were a 50/50 experience, summed up by the following sequence of events from last night:

On one hand some folks found it funny to be hurling a broken flagpole across the crowd during Jessie J with enough velocity for it to leave my jaw covered in blood from a huge cut when it hit me square-on. But on the other hand every single person around me helped out with wet wipes, free food, general sympathy, etc as soon as it happened. So yeah 50/50 experience.

Edited August 19, 2013 by Zac Quinn

[CDESSEX]

Shit festival, shit crowd.

Has gone downhill so fast since 2009.

[markqpr2000]

Shit festival, shit crowd.

Has gone downhill so fast since 2009.

[bella13]

Totally agree. I could cope with most things (drunk teenagers, women peeing in the middle of arena stage etc etc) but the constant screeming, singing and people falling into my tent all night just got too much. 5 hrs sleep all weekend made for a very difficult drive home today. Would never camp at V again.

[Indie53]

I'm 35, been for 6 hrs and will never go again, 90% full of kids / chavs with awful attitudes, last night (Beyonce) topped it waited 5 hrs right hand side of v stage chavs bullying / arguing us to hand over our spaces then ganging up and pushing us forward to crush us pushing my hubby out then getting more people to surround them he left but I thought he had just wanted to leave, 4 fights around us 1 girl fainted, Beyonce 30 mins late watched 2 song n felt myself nearly fainting had to fight way through the crowd, went past Steve Angello on 4 stage near empty, V more keen on profit than replacing beady eye put risk on the beyonce crowd and being at the front it could have been a disaster!! Slept in the car for 4 hrs last night as the had no sleep for 2 nights because of constant pointless screaming from all the teens, crowds not friendly and moody!! Guess V has wanted this so they can put cheap headline pop slots and they will sell out for loads less WELL DONE V FEST!!!!!!

[Pothuthic]

You're Steph from Facebook? If so im sorry that this happened, you've helped me out a lot on there so it's a shame, but yeah.

[steph78]

Then you're clearly a bit thick and don't know how to pick your locations.

[bella13]

OMG I have camped in green for 4 yrs now and always been fine so bore off!! I can cope with 2 hrs kip but none really?

Edited August 19, 2013 by bella13

[Rusco]

Hi Steph, had to reply to your post.

I'm around your age and everyone in our group of four were 30 plus.

I have to say we all had a great time. Whether we were lucky I'm not sure, but I expected what you have said but to be honest over the weekend we had none of that apart from one incident.

I don't agree with some of your points. The criticism that 90% of people are younger, well yes I'm sure younger than 35, I don't have an issue with that, the majority of the younger ones are out for a good time and I found many nice people. I agree probably the camping is noisy, but hell this is a festival, you are not going to get 8-10 hours sleep, if you wanted that you could have stayed off site, chosen a quiter camp site (by doing some research) or hired a camper and stayed in that area like we did. And yes we had people shouting "alan" and on the first night I didn't get much sleep, but to be honest by nights 2 and 3 I was so knackered from a full day of music I just slept.

I will say for Jessie J, The Script and Beyonce it was rough. In my time I have been to quiet a few "rock" concerts and the best way I can describe it is in that atmosphere there is an unwritten code that you only go to the front if you don't mind being pushed around. This being a Beyonce show it seemed to me that wasn't really understood. However, this was Beyonce, probably the biggest pop act around, did you really expect it to be a nice quiet event towards the front? People were desperate to get to the front (mainly younger females) for an artist who sells out world tours in minutes and yes some were rude and wanted to push past, you just had to hold your ground. We had a bad incident with a few younger girls from liverpool, but if they wanted to spend their time trying to push past people more than actually watch the show, how sad for them! If you were around idiots, why didn't you move or let them move out the way? Eventually we just let a few past.

Beyonce was great and I totally expected what happened, you had to basically "fight" to get a good spot, we stood in the same spot for almost six hours hence had to hold our ground, but to be honest bar two idiots as described the majority around us were great and I got a real buzz off see everyone so excited. What will stay with me is having one girl next to me, she couldn't have been much over 5 foot tall, she couldn't have seen a thing but she was so excited, danced, song every word and didn't try and push past or moan once and that really made my night, so I won't have it you don't get music fans at V and my heart goes to that girl whoever she was!

But what you don't mention in slagging V off is you could walk right to the front for say Paloma faith, no pushing, loads of space, get close to an incredible artist and have a great time singing and dancing. Over the two days we saw The Saturdays, Scouting for Girls, Tom Odell, Rudimental, some of Ellie goulding, Rita Ora, Basement Jaxx, a few comedy shows, Silouette, James, Paloma faith, Jessie J, The Script and Beyonce. For most of the shows we got near to the front by being polite, had a great time and a few drinks. Barring one little shouting match for Beyonce (to be expected because of the excitement) we had zero issues. Granted we did leave the arena after a quick drink about 12, but during the whole weekend I saw no trouble. The toilets we kept pretty well considering I was expecting all sorts, the staff we found great, good morning when we left camp, a chat when we returned, toilets cleaned early, yes noisy, people having a laugh, yes I got some "liquid on me" but totally to be expected.

Frankly I think some people just don't get into the festival spirit, it's three days in another world, about the music, there was so much on.

I mean people go on about great festivals reading and leeds etc, you don't think you get moshed at reading and leeds? It's booze free? Seriously?

Like I say, maybe we were lucky, maybe we just went with the right attitude to love the different acts we saw. Yes some were pop, but loads of dance and rock. Give you another example, if sunday morning you turned up for Silouette, really nice female rock singer you could have walked right to the crash barrier to watch a real talented performer on guitar, synth and great vocals? We watched a bit of Vox Empire, good solid indie band right at the front with about 20 other people in there, where were you then? All I'm saying is a festival is what you make it and I'd hate anyone to be totally put off by thinking every venue is full of idiots, yes idiots are about in the world in general but surely you just avoid them?

I really loved v fest.

[Rusco]

The V crowd these days are terrible - if you watch certain acts..... Ocean Colour Scene was one of the best festival sets I've been too, great crowd, brilliant atmosphere - completely Chavless - Rudimental on the other hand were the other end of the scale.

If my wife didn't like Rudimental so much I'd have been watching Lianne La Havas - but it was the only Chav act I watched are was the only low point of the festival for me.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Rusco

[luckysalt]

Same old shit with V im afraid, its a completely different festival in terms of acts and audience compared to when I first went in 2001. Mind you, you still had dicks then but it was the minority.

[efcfanwirral]

Can I ask what was your issue with Rudimental? I was close-ish to "the banger flag" if you recall that and found no issues. Yes a little mosh circle formed and it got rough, if you don't like that sort of thing move away. Yeah you can call people chavs or whatever, but what do you mean? I saw loads of people into singing the music, dancing around.

Lets not pretend mid-late 90's rock is a different world. I've been to Oasis concerts, I think OCS supported once, and it was rough in the early days, I mean hardcore male fights with Liam Gallager screaming "fight, fight, fight" etc. I know which crowd I would prefer, rudimental over a full on fist fight any day!