2017

[festy-dancer]

I took a last minute decision not to camp when I heard about the long queues to get on site, and Friday's weather forecast - so I did 2 day trips instead.

Without doubt V has "evolved" over the years, and it's certainly not the same festival that it used to be. I was feeling a bit negative about this year given the line up, poor ticket sales, extra security etc. But unexpectedly I thoroughly enjoyed myself more than I could have thought!

The site has been changed around - so the VIP area is in the field where the MTV stage used to be, and the MTV stage is in the field where the Futures and comedy tent used to be. The comedy tent has moved into where the VHealthy food area used to be. The only time it didn't work to well was when a huge crowd left Sean Paul on MTV to join the start of Pink - and everyone was caught up in food and toilet queues - used to be much easier getting between stages.

Saturday was really quiet at Weston - no queues. Easy to get around the site. Sunday was much busier - but nothing like the old days. The MTV stage always felt about third capacity. Main stage was busy - but not tightly packed.

So V has become a show case for alot of younger artists. Everyone I saw gave 100% polished act. Great to see so many live instruments on stage and full bands. Thankfully we didn't get an hour of DJing on main stage this year! There is so much British talent out there - Ella Eyre, Jess Glyn, George Ezra, Ellie Goulding, Anne Marie....   I thoroughly enjoyed all of their acts - even though I wouldn't have chosen them on the bill. Madness were just pure class - and they really got the party started! I was blown away by Pete Tong's orchestral Ibiza hits. I was curious to see Example's DJ Wire set - and it was rocking with so many good tunes... reminded me of the old "indie" disco they used to have on a Friday night at Weston. Rudimental were great last night too. So for £150 for my early bird camping ticket - I definitely got good value, enjoyed the music. Who knows whether it's the end.... but I'll be back next year for more!

[LucyJR]

I could hear it last night, and I'm 6 miles away.   Have always been able to if the wind is blowing in the right direction though, so nothing new there.

 

The security was pretty poor this year for the local area; I always get dropped off at the top of a closed road that normally has security at both ends, this year although there were cones and a road closed sign there was only security at the A5 end, I know quite a few people who drove down it to drop people off, which must have annoyed the residents.

As for the lack of security on the queues and at the toilets; it was very obvious this is where they cut costs.

[festy-dancer]

8 minutes ago, amyg1990 said:

A lot of the local facebook pages to Weston park had a lot of complaints relating to the noise. People were claiming that the Weston noise could be heard in villages 10 mile away….. this always happens but this year environmental health were allegedly called in.

I don’t know how true all this is however wouldn’t that make a lovely cover up for V if they do decide to cancel. Didn’t YNOT try to claim their council revoked their licence? It all just seems to be going south for them!

Yes - and they have had alot of negative publicity about the bad drug finds at Weston too - so as you say - gives an excuse not to get a licence. 

[JBarbour]

That's the first time I've done V in a long time. Although only there for one and half days really. 
No mention of 2018 tickets at Weston. 

It's the lack of extras that kill V. There is no night time entertainment put on. Nothing away from the music. More expensive than longer festivals with much more on.  

Sunday seemed a lot busier than Saturday at Weston. Very well run from what I saw. But that could be more me experiencing a number of disorganised festivals this year. A massive (armed) police presence. On Saturday and Sunday the gates/entrances seemed to be well manned. Stewards/security/police/dogs . Even searching our hats!  

Could it be more of a rebrand than not going ahead at all next year? Surely Wireless would go before V. 

Edited August 21, 2017 by craigb

[NickisGinger]

8 minutes ago, craigb said:

That's the first time I've done V in a long time. Although only there for one and half days really. 
No mention of 2018 tickets at Weston. 

It's the lack of extras that kill V. There is no night time entertainment put on. Nothing away from the music. More expensive than longer festivals with much more on.  

Sunday seemed a lot busier than Saturday at Weston. Very well run from what I saw. But that could be more me experiencing a number of disorganised festivals this year. A massive (armed) police presence. On Saturday and Sunday the gates/entrances seemed to be well manned. Stewards/security/police/dogs . Even searching our hats!  

Could it be more of a rebrand than not going ahead at all next year? Surely Wireless would go before V. 

I'd doubt wireless would go after this years success

[JBarbour]

3 minutes ago, NickisGinger said:

I'd doubt wireless would go after this years success

Did it sell well? 

I haven't taken much notice of it this year. The lineup looked incredibly poor to prev years.  

[NickisGinger]

5 minutes ago, craigb said:

Did it sell well? 

I haven't taken much notice of it this year. The lineup looked incredibly poor to prev years.  

Yeah I think most of it sold out. Then they put tickets on sale for next year, which I never known them to do (well since I've know about Wireless since '11)

[JBarbour]

19 minutes ago, NickisGinger said:

Yeah I think most of it sold out. Then they put tickets on sale for next year, which I never known them to do (well since I've know about Wireless since '11)

Strange as most people will buy day tickets. With no lineup until probably next year don't see much point. 

 

[amyg1990]

1 hour ago, LucyJR said:

I could hear it last night, and I'm 6 miles away.   Have always been able to if the wind is blowing in the right direction though, so nothing new there.

yea I know you always can, I meant more that the 'environmental' squad were called in

 

1 hour ago, craigb said:

It's the lack of extras that kill V. There is no night time entertainment put on. Nothing away from the music. More expensive than longer festivals with much more on.

this is the issue with V isnt it - and the main reason a lot of people wont go. For the same price you can go to a 3/4day festival with heaps more on. I don’t know why they think 2days for how much they charge is acceptable.

 

Wireless is a bit different to V though isnt it? it isnt a camping festival and id have thought that kind of festival will appeal to the sort of crowd pop artists attract.....

[NickisGinger]

Nothing in the blog or email about next year. Are we just looking into this too much? Haha

[festy-dancer]

Well the Official App says see you in 2018.....

[NickisGinger]

4 minutes ago, festy-dancer said:

Well the Official App says see you in 2018.....

Oh! Ok!

[watsonjm]

23 minutes ago, festy-dancer said:

Well the Official App says see you in 2018.....

No mention of sites though. I'm wondering if they'll combine the two sites? Try and fill one fully rather than to half full events. 

 

Just back from this year. Will post thoughts tomorrow. 

[NickisGinger]

1 hour ago, watsonjm said:

No mention of sites though. I'm wondering if they'll combine the two sites? Try and fill one fully rather than to half full events. 

 

Just back from this year. Will post thoughts tomorrow. 

I was thinking about that, just one possible site. That would save some money!

[festy-dancer]

There were definitely some last minute ticket sales as lots of people on the shuttle bus were planning to buy them on site from the box office on arrival. Maybe they need to work out how much it cost them to put on this years event - they may have had an unexpected security bill imposed on them in the last week. If you assume they usually sell 30,000 programmes across both sites - then that's another £0.3m of lost revenue this year. I guess only when they know what their profit was can they work out what to do next year - and also at what price to charge. 

Its almost exciting waiting to find out...... takes me back to the pre - fence Glastonbury days when you never knew whether you were at the last one ever. Then all the rumours that 2000 would be the end - especially whilst they took time out to plan their future. That was 17 years ago, and now we know they will be back in 2019!

i know it's all about profit at the end of the day - but you can't put a price on the enjoyment that the bands and the crowd get from V - just look at the positive comments on Twitter! And it puts £9m into the local economy too - taxis, hotels, shuttle buses, Poundland... 

Edited August 21, 2017 by festy-dancer

[NickisGinger]

43 minutes ago, festy-dancer said:

There were definitely some last minute ticket sales as lots of people on the shuttle bus were planning to buy them on site from the box office on arrival. Maybe they need to work out how much it cost them to put on this years event - they may have had an unexpected security bill imposed on them in the last week. If you assume they usually sell 30,000 programmes across both sites - then that's another £0.3m of lost revenue this year. I guess only when they know what their profit was can they work out what to do next year - and also at what price to charge. 

Its almost exciting waiting to find out...... takes me back to the pre - fence Glastonbury days when you never knew whether you were at the last one ever. Then all the rumours that 2000 would be the end - especially whilst they took time out to plan their future. That was 17 years ago, and now we know they will be back in 2019!

i know it's all about profit at the end of the day - but you can't put a price on the enjoyment that the bands and the crowd get from V - just look at the positive comments on Twitter! And it puts £9m into the local economy too - taxis, hotels, shuttle buses, Poundland... 

I get excited every year for the line up announcement. The last one I was joyous with was 2013. Even though this year is the 2nd time in 8 years I haven't been..

[Muppetmark]

7 hours ago, NickisGinger said:

Yeah I think most of it sold out. Then they put tickets on sale for next year, which I never known them to do (well since I've know about Wireless since '11)

Thats insane, I've not seen that before either and i first went in 09

[watsonjm]

Ok, feeling slightly more normal now I've slept.  All in all another cracking weekend.  Few issues i had, first was the queue to get in.  It was mental and never seen anything like that there! Second was the amount of toilets in Gold camp site.  First time I've camped there (having always been up at green or gray) and there was not nearly enough for the amount of tents in there.  Other than that it really was good.  It was obvious there were significantly less people there but that actually made it much more enjoyable.  We were able to walk to sound tent around 2-3 both days and stayed there , with kids, without any problems.  You could get out the loo's and the bars and back to your group without major issue.  Loo's in the area where fine and the way they manage the girls loo's is great and sped up the queues massively. 

Despite being skeptical about the line up i managed to fill my time pretty well, without doubt the best set for me was Pete Tong which was special and something I've never seen before.  Madness were great, Pink was good fun and Craig David had the place rocking and Clean bandit were my surprise having not really been bothered about them.

We had a group of 19, about half adults half under 18 and everyone had a great time.  If we could keep one thing the same for next year, it would be the reduced capacity/tickets sold.  Keep the numbers how they were this year and i would be 100% in for future years, it just made the whole weekend easier and more enjoyable for us as a big group. 

Edited August 22, 2017 by watsonjm

[watsonjm]

12 hours ago, NickisGinger said:

I was thinking about that, just one possible site. That would save some money!

And with the SGP site becoming available... 

[NickisGinger]

23 minutes ago, watsonjm said:

And with the SGP site becoming available... 

The what site? (Sorry no idea)

[watsonjm]

58 minutes ago, NickisGinger said:

The what site? (Sorry no idea)

No worries, SGP is Secret Garden Party.  Its a relativity small festival in Cambridgeshire that had its final year this summer.  Local rumors have said the V fest organisers have been sniffing around.   Whether that's to replace V or for a new festivals isn't clear. But the owner of the land (Lord Ramsey I think) is apparently keen to carrying on hosting a festival despite ending SGP.

[JBarbour]

36 minutes ago, watsonjm said:

But the owner of the land (Lord Ramsey I think) is apparently keen to carrying on hosting a festival despite ending SGP.

 

Fellowes family own the land and are keen on hosting another festival -
Dad (John Fellowes) - 4th Baron de Ramsey owns the land
Son (Freddie Fellowes) organised SGP. 

I think that's right, @eFestivals may know more...?

[NickisGinger]

1 hour ago, watsonjm said:

No worries, SGP is Secret Garden Party.  Its a relativity small festival in Cambridgeshire that had its final year this summer.  Local rumors have said the V fest organisers have been sniffing around.   Whether that's to replace V or for a new festivals isn't clear. But the owner of the land (Lord Ramsey I think) is apparently keen to carrying on hosting a festival despite ending SGP.

I see, thank you.

[phil the shrew]

Thanks to those who posted their feedback. Very interesting

Living locally to Weston I went regularly from mid 2000 onwards but last one I went to was 2014, when the level of anti social behaviour like drink (or other substance) throwing, setting fire to tents and general showing off to mates reached a peak. Move to pop and decline of the non music attractions were a factor too

Do miss going though and nice to hear those who went had a good time. Like the comment about hearing new up and coming acts and do miss seeing those on the smaller stages as used to happen. Sounds like general crowd behaviour has improved too

Hope it does continue as Weston is a nice venue and good toe in the water for people new to festivals - would love a more diverse festival though as West Midlands/Shropshire/Birmingham lacks a good all round festival 

[Rose-Colored Boy]

On 21/08/2017 at 1:49 PM, festy-dancer said:

I took a last minute decision not to camp when I heard about the long queues to get on site, and Friday's weather forecast - so I did 2 day trips instead.

Without doubt V has "evolved" over the years, and it's certainly not the same festival that it used to be. I was feeling a bit negative about this year given the line up, poor ticket sales, extra security etc. But unexpectedly I thoroughly enjoyed myself more than I could have thought!

The site has been changed around - so the VIP area is in the field where the MTV stage used to be, and the MTV stage is in the field where the Futures and comedy tent used to be. The comedy tent has moved into where the VHealthy food area used to be. The only time it didn't work to well was when a huge crowd left Sean Paul on MTV to join the start of Pink - and everyone was caught up in food and toilet queues - used to be much easier getting between stages.

Saturday was really quiet at Weston - no queues. Easy to get around the site. Sunday was much busier - but nothing like the old days. The MTV stage always felt about third capacity. Main stage was busy - but not tightly packed.

So V has become a show case for alot of younger artists. Everyone I saw gave 100% polished act. Great to see so many live instruments on stage and full bands. Thankfully we didn't get an hour of DJing on main stage this year! There is so much British talent out there - Ella Eyre, Jess Glyn, George Ezra, Ellie Goulding, Anne Marie....   I thoroughly enjoyed all of their acts - even though I wouldn't have chosen them on the bill. Madness were just pure class - and they really got the party started! I was blown away by Pete Tong's orchestral Ibiza hits. I was curious to see Example's DJ Wire set - and it was rocking with so many good tunes... reminded me of the old "indie" disco they used to have on a Friday night at Weston. Rudimental were great last night too. So for £150 for my early bird camping ticket - I definitely got good value, enjoyed the music. Who knows whether it's the end.... but I'll be back next year for more!

Wait so they got rid of V Healthy? That sucks, it was always overpriced in there but the food was lush. The MTV Stage field was always far too flat to get a good view so I'm not surprised they've ditched the idea of having music in that field. The sound bleed to other parts of the fest from the MTV Stage was awful too, not sure that'd be helped by moving it closer to the Main Stage and Arena though.