V Festival
V Festivals is held every year on the 21st and the 22nd of August at Hylands Park in Chelmsford and Weston Park in Staffordshire, the event is run by SJM Concert. The line-up is exactly the same at both places; they play at one location on the 21st and then swap on the 22nd. Although the festival originally started off as a rock festival it has since welcomed a number of acts that aren't of the rock gene with pop acts actually becoming much more common in recent years. The gig is sponsored by Virgin Music, which is why it's called V Festival and it is also shown on Channel 4 and their music channel 4Music.
It all started in 1996 when the lead singer on the band Pulp, Jarvis Cocker said he would like to play at two outdoor venues in two days, the bands promoters then came up with the idea of doing a gig at Victoria Park and Hylands Park (Warrington and Chelmsford). They chose these to location as they wanted to give people in the North and south the same opportunity of seeing them play, they then decided to make the gig more than just about them, adding a second stage and more bands and allowing fans to camp. However they found that the Victoria Park wasn't big enough for two stages and camping, so they held on day there at two days at Hyland Park. The following year they changed to Temple Newsam in Leeds and then in 1999 moved to the Weston park location where it is still held today.
Since it has started V Festival has just gotten bigger and bigger and has made a name for its self for being one of the best music festivals to go to, with its highly professional organisation and its top all star line up it's no surprise that tickets are always a sell out on the same day they come out!
In the early days the festival was known as V and then the year e.g. V96, however in 2003 it was changed to V Festival. In the early years the likes of Pulp, Paul Weller, Supergrass, The Cardigans, Blur, The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk etc. Then in 1998 saw the line up of bands start to change with the likes of Robbie Williams, Green Day, All Saints, James Brown, this carried on with the following years having bands like Happy Mondays, The Beautiful South, Groove Armada, Melanie C, Jamelia, Coldplay, Red Hot Chilli Peppers to name just a few that have graced the stage at the V Festival.
Last year the tickets for V festival were more popular than ever, a limited amount of ticket were sold on the 19th August in 2008 just after the 2008 festival and then the full ticket release was done on the 6th March 2009. The headlining acts for 2009 were Oasis and The Killers, however Oasis only performed on the Saturday due to them being ill, the band then announced they had split up a few days later which mean V festival 2009 was their last every gig!
Other artists that performed in 2009 were; Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, The Saturdays, Will Young, N-Dubz, Daniel Merriweather, Paolo Nutini, Keane, Lady Gaga, Mike Snow, Pixie Lott, Mr Hudson, Calvin Harris, The Script, Lilly Allen and Dizzee Rascal, to name just a few.
However the festival has come under fire for its costly extra, programmes cost 10 and are the only way of finding out who is playing and at what stage, food and drink is also expensive and it's been known that you get drinks taken off you on your entrance, meaning you have to buy one on the inside. Also it was reported that over 600 people were injured at the festival last year and that organisers put a limit on the amount of people allowed into see Lady Gaga due to fighting.
