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Cor blimey!

V Festival 2008 was probably the most interesting festival experience of my life. It was bigger, shorter, more compact and commercial than any other festival I had ever been to and boy, did I have fun getting on site!

Josh from the Friday Night Gerbil came with me to take pictures and, having been before, he warned me about the lovely people on the gates, who promptly made us walk all the way round the site: a very long way with gear, mud and wellies.

V is for V Stage

Roots Manuva was amazing! As far as I'm concerned he made the festival, as we shouted 'left right left right' in Movements. Grins were everywhere and Witness (One hope) was the best track. He cheekily teased the crowd and made us scream for more after playing only the first two bars. It was worth the wait though.

Duffy at V Festival

Following closely behind in second place was Lenny Kravitz on the main stage. American Woman sounded fantastic and his saxophonist performed great solos. Duffy was also a hit in my books. Sounding as real as the album, she strutted her stuff and even started to strip off!

I didn't last long in The Pogues - almost got crushed to death. Amy Winehouse almost caused a riot being late. Everyone was pushing and shoving, and when she eventually got on stage, there were a mixture of boos and applause, but also "Look at her!". Miss Morissette kept performing a very slow motion rocker move or erm... nose dive. The Feeling really got the crowd going and Hot Chip were just fabulous.

V is for Very

It must be said that V is rather large, with just over 25,000 people - that's bigger than my uni! On Sunday, this became scarily apparent when thousands of people started running towards me to get to the stages for the best view (and also the bar). I read on a website somewhere that it took someone six hours to get out of the car park so Josh and I decided to VIP it! Made a huge difference and only took us 50 minutes to go half a mile instead.

V Festival crowd

On the other hand, it also sort of felt very small, considering how many people were there. Maybe this was because it looked like everything had been dropped from a great height by aliens! The stages were in very bizarre places - I ended up going round and round in circles trying to find the Union stage, only to keep finding JJB's huge tent.

A site map would have been useful, but as always the programmes sold out in the first two hours and there were no more! But I have to say the line for the loos was incredible - it looked like the world's longest snake impression. Mainly women though, seeing as the males (as at any festival) just had to go up against a fence!

Something that really shocked me was the fact I was too short! I am normally a perfect height at 5'8", but no, not this time. It wasn't so much that the audience were giants, it was more to do with the stages being scarily high. Maybe as a country bumpkin I'm not used to such things.

V Festival mud

How can a festival advice webpage miss out wellies on their camping list?! They mentioned trainers and boots but no wellies! There was enough mud to make a swimming pool and there were several disasters. However most people managed to keep upright. The car park was interesting but due to my marvellous driving skills (ahem) and Josh's superb directing we got in and out without much ado.

V is for V Virgins – Opinions of first timers and seasoned campers at V

V Virgins collected outside the Union stage to chat to me. I found them listening to Gabriella. After chatting for a while, it was decided that the place was massive with great bands, but it wasn't as good as Glastonbury because it didn't have the festival feel as it was too commercial. It's also expensive.

You have to cram bands into your day because there are so many and the food's not great. I have to admit, I started to wonder by the end of Saturday whether V was about entertainment or purely promotion.

However a young man of 35 came up to me asking for a programme. I explained that I had nothing to do with the merchandising of the festival and explained Blast to him. He then proceeded to take me on a guided tour of V and explained he had been for four years now. He thought it was the best festival in the world as everything was in one place.

Stereophonics at 2008 V Festival

I felt reassured that it was a hit as a festival and that people really did enjoy it, despite the weather.Μύ

I also asked a few people about Amy Winehouse. The response was very mixed but the general consensus was that she was ill and tired-looking; but sounded as good as ever with her band and backing.

A huge disappointment for everyone were The Futureheads. The photographers didn't like them as their lighting wasn't the best and the crowd thought they were dull.

V is for Vroom! - On the Road again

Over the two days, I managed to do 230 miles somehow - must have been all that driving with Josh trying to find cheaper food on Saturday night in Shrewsbury. We must have looked very shifty stopping outside every fast food outlet in sight. Call us unfair, but we thought 'we are open 24 hours' signs were slightly misused seeing that we were presented with very locked doors at midnight.

I'm at Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2008 this weekend. I shall have to see how that compares as a festival. Having been for the last three years, and as an ever-changing festival for layout and crowds, they should make a great comparison.