It’s pretty rare to go to a festival in England and not only have some amazing headline acts but also hot blazing sun on both days but V festival achieved both of these this weekend.
Although it’s got a reputation for being the most commercial (chav-tastic) festival around, the weekend was full of a nice blend of chart-topping bands from both the past few months – aka Emili Sandé – to legends from the past 10 years such as the Stone Roses and Noel Gallagher.
The event was all about the headliners and it seems organisers picked though the number one albums of the year and went from there.
The Stone Roses and The Killers were the main two and neither disappointed. I was pretty cautious before the Killers came on as they’ve been relatively quiet on the music scene of late, but a few songs in and the entire crowd was screaming along to the classics. To end off the night they came back for an encore of ‘When you were young’ and reminded everyone what a truly epic band they are.
On the Saturday the Stone Roses went along the same route and from the first few notes of ‘I want to be adored’ they had every single person in the audience gripped.
X-factor acts were also prominent with Cher Lloyd performing some impressive songs before (understandably) throwing a strop over bottles being thrown on stage while Olly Murs lapped up the lime light and the attention from his home crowd. Despite a lot of karaoke-esque numbers from the Essex Boy, he got everyone singing and dancing and even came on to perform a duet with Madness of ‘It Must Be Love.’
Following on the pop theme, Snow Patrol and Keane banged out a few old classics while at the other end of the spectrum, Tinie Tempah and David Guetta separately had everyone in the crowd leaping off their feet.
A stand out for me was Ben Howard who seemed to be one of the happiest person at V and looked genuinely shocked and humbled by the number of crowds turning up to watch him.
The beautiful weather of course encouraged a lot of happy people and also a LOT of burnt bodies belonging to owners who completely live up to the Brits abroad in the sun stereotype – stripping off as soon as the rays hit etc.
Lacking was the likes of Nicki Minaj, who pulled out because of strained vocal chords despite a barrage of abuse on Twitter, and also Dappy and Frank Ocean.
Carling were also there hosting their own Refresh Rooms tent which saw performances from the likes of Reverend and the Makers. It also became the place to be for those who wanted to shelter from the sun and dance the day away.
All in all the festival was an excellent mix of commercial bands (old and new), some unforgettable headline acts, a lot of very happy festival-goers and a lot of sunshine – you can’t really ask for more.
And in case you missed out you can check out Reverend and the Makers performing in the Refresh Rooms below.
