V Festival

The V Festival is an annual music festival in England, the first to be held simultaneously at two sites, currently Hylands Park in Chelmsford and Weston Park in South Staffordshire, organized by SJM Concerts. Tt had previously been held at Temple Newsam in Leeds, before being succeeded by Carling's Leeds Festival. Originally, the festival took the name of the current year, and the first festival was called "V96". Since 2003 it has been known simply as the V Festival.

History

The idea for V came in 1995 when Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker announced that he would love to play two outdoor venues in two days. Pulp's promoters got together and came up with the idea of putting the concert into Victoria Park in Warrington and Hylands Park in Chelmsford so that fans in both north and south would have a chance to see the band. Then came the idea of adding more bands to the bill, setting up a second stage, and letting people camp for the weekend. In the end, Victoria Park was too small for two stages and camping. So in August 1996 there was an artists' day at Victoria Park and two days at Hylands Park with camping. The northern leg of V97 was switched to Leeds Temple Newsham to camping space and three stages. In 1999 the northern leg of the festival moved to Weston Park in Staffordshire and has remained there ever since.

The "V" stands for Virgin Group and began as another means of promoting Richard Branson's companies. The event is sponsored by Virgin Mobile, with Virgin Radio being the official radio station.

The festival usually takes place during the penultimate weekend of August. Its weekend format, low queue times and professional organization have earned it a loyal audience. The festival sold out in record time in 2006.

Although rock music predominates, the festival books a wide range of music and is probably the most likely among UK festivals to book a few pop acts each year. Melanie C, Dido, and N.E.R.D. have all performed at the festival, with both Razorlight and Faithless performing in 2006. V features a mix of British and international musicians, from up-and-coming bands such as Coldplay in 2000 and Kaiser Chiefs in 2003 and 2008, and glam rockers El Presidente in 2005, to veteran singer Tony Christie. Girls Aloud also performed at the 2006 show and received rave reviews for their performance. McFly performed at the festival in 2007 and received unexpectedly great attendance and rave reviews.