Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire.
written by Powerrk125 on 20/08/2017
First time to V in Hylands Park this year. 1. From Car park to camping to arena is MILES.....takes at least 45 mins to get to each. 2. Filthy toilets. Nowhere to wash your hands, only alcohol gel. 3. Food overpriced. 4. Loads of amusement rides around the arena; so loud that they interfere with the artists playing. Terrible. 5. Never seen filth like it, rubbish all over the place. 6. 80% of the festival goers are under 25; its loud, they are drunk and on drugs acting like idiots. It's disgraceful. We left on Sunday and missed the main 2 acts because the crowds poured in and kids were drunk and taking drugs with no concequence. Did not feel safe on Sunday. Will never be back and won't ever allow my kids to go. Shameful.
written by elliothardman on 02/09/2015
I was a carer for 2 disabled persons we could only get ther by public transport,no security or staff new were the disabled area was and to get your carers wrist band you have to go to the back entrence to v fest, so i had to leave disabled people to go in main entrance and I have to make a 2/ 3 mile hike.otherwise v was great but on leaving the exit,luckely one of the persons I care for had a go pro camera on her hed and cort me going out of the festival, then I got attact by the security unbelivebley,wich I have for all to see if eny one is interested
written by 471Drew on 21/08/2014
VFest 2014 was my first festival ever and after reading all the awful reviews on the web I was slightly dubious to say the least. We arrived into the carpark at 9am on the Friday morning and there wasn’t a massive queue to get into the car park, if you have a lot of stuff or a massive tent I would recommend a trolley and lots of bungee ropes, the walk isn’t that bad from gold to the arena however I wouldn’t recommend it with a load of gear – especially if you have a couple of trips to do as you are looking at 20mins minimum and that’s with nothing to carry. At first the queue to get past the sniffer doggies looks horrendous but isn’t that bad and we were through within about 15mins. We turned left into gold camp as soon as we got through because we didn’t want to be up all night and did have a couple of trips to be doing. We pitched up, had a few drinks and went to the box office to exchange our tickets this was about 4pm and there are burger vans, toilets and ice cream vans along the way. The box office queue was non-existent and so was the queue for the lockerhouse. Off we went for food, there are loads of places to eat that are reasonably priced – for a festival I thought the whole place was to be fair. We upgraded to VIP for the weekend and I was so glad that we did, the toilet queues were long at times depending on what acts where on but we had a full view of the MTV stage, no rubbish on the floor, a heated bar with a DJ on all day until 2am ish, nicer food to eat, cash bar, tables, inflatable couches, massive beanbags, hammocks and generally away from the hustle & bustle of the main arena. The normal toilets were appalling! If I hadn’t of upgraded prior to going the second I opened the cubicle door and got a wiff of the stench from the toilets I would have been straight to the box office anyway. I was worried about things being stolen etc but I didn’t see any of that happen, there were a few idiots in camp but the only thing they did was have music on super early and that’s hardly crime of the century and to be expected in all fairness. The only downside is the weather, it rained & rained on the Monday morning, I could not be bothered putting the massive tent I took down and having to do a few trips to the car in the mud but then again hey ho – we were going home so it didn’t matter that we were soaking. Loads of people pack up on the Sunday morning and leave Sunday night so’s to avoid the monstrous queue to exit the car park in the morning. We did go and get our things out of the locker on the Sunday night to avoid a 40 min walk in the morning as we were already in the arena – so that’s worth doing. We also packed everything away ready to be loaded into the car so we had less to do when we were leaving half asleep. Monday morning we were up at 7:30 and in the car for 9:15, luckily we saw a gap in the fence and got out there but my friend didn’t move from her car parking space for 2 hours so if you have had enough of drinking by Sunday night that really is the time to go home. Festivals cost a fortune but where can you see so many acts in 1 place for £210?!! People are just whinging for the sake of it I think, everything goes up each year, that’s just the way it is, suck it up & enjoy it. I had an awesome time and cannot wait until VFest2015, I am going to upgrade next year as I had total VStyle envy going on every time I sat in VIP. Be wary but just roll with it :)
written by Rachel1980 on 26/09/2013
I paid £65 in total to use the luxury loos at weston park V festival for my sister and I for 2 days. We used them once because they were just constantly over crowded. There were 10 women toilets, a queue of over 45 mins at any time, the "attentive attendants" were stood around smoking not trying to help get the queue down. In the end we used the portaloos because there was no queue (max 5 mins) and not all that bad. I've complained to the organisers and they have ignored me which is unacceptable. For any one who goes for V thinking that this is the answer to your toilet problems think again - take tissues and hand sanitiser and rough it with everyone else. Luxury loos are one of the worst companies I've ever used and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone!
written by karen34 on 19/08/2013
since being a regular V festival goer since 97 ave watched it going down hill the past few years,,there far to many pop bands or diva's that its starting to feel like a smash hits type of festival not an indie festival & as for the cost of everything from parking to there beer tents is absolutely disgusting,, V sort this out before your festival will be just full of rich teeny poppers which seems you have no way of controling & you will lose all of us regulars who love & repect our suroundings!!!!
written by on 24/08/2010
Why the hell can't the stewards organise the egress from the car parks, as well as thew access. On leaving, we waited 1.5 hours to get out of the venue and travelled a mere 750 metres in doing so. Meanwhile, the stewards stood around in groups, completely oblivious to the traffic chaos around them.
written by on 23/08/2010
Anyone thinking of camping at this festival be warned!! There is the longest walk ever to the campsite. You may think that it wont be a problem but when you are carrying a tent,sleeping bags,beer and other amenities for 50min in the rain you may have wished that you had thought this over. Also tent spaces are limited so get there early. In the afternoon we spoke to people sat on their belongings as they could not find anywhere to pitch their tents.
There is nothing that really happens on the Friday night apart from a DJ set in the tiny Strongbow Cider tent and this closes at around 11ish. After that you are left to your own devises.
We also had an issue on the opening day where we had to queue for 50 minutes to get through security to get into the arenas!!
There is also a very small quantity of toilets and yet again results in queuing!!
On the plus side the people who attend the Weston Park Festival are the best bunch of festival goers ever. This does help with all the negatives that V Festival has to offer. I had a brilliant time but most of that is from the bands I watched, people I met and the people I went to V Festival with.
After three years of attending the festival this one was the least organised it has ever been. Instead of being greedy and taking all our money they should start to listen to peoples suggestions.
I did speak to some people who advised that Glasto is far better organised than V Festival.
After 3 years of V the standards have slipped and I think I will try a different festival!
written by on 23/08/2010
not good value for Money. Not enough information security staff and information points all lacking. Toilets ridiculous for the amount of people. I had access to posh loos (Joke) 30 min queue on average.
bands didn't enagage with the audience. Camping facilities a joke. Poor value for money
written by on 23/08/2010
Having been to v festival since it started i used to love it, however, go to another big festival and you will see how they are supposed to be run, in my last year there (2009) i paid extra for the closer campsite which was 45 minutes walk away, there were barely enough water facilities for the campers (we spotted two water taps for about 50,000 campers) but thats okay because the ice cream vans seemed to be open all hours where you could purchase a small bottle for £3.50 a pop!!, the tents were touching each other everywhere(fire hazard) where the organizers tried to herd people in, on two occasions my friend caught on camera fire officers asleep in the watchtowers.
The security firms contracted hire in loads of last minute staff clearly without proper training as four guards we approached coming out of another persons tent did not speak english at all, a basic requirement for the job i would assume, they managed to get away before we could establish they were going through peoples tents robbing of valuables, you would think when you see a security guard they would be the safe ones!!
i would never return to v as they have a lot to improve when you compare their standard to other festivals, far too money orientated.
written by bubsy37 on 20/08/2008
I go to V every year and always really enjoy it but every year more people attend but the facilities do not increase - i.e massive queues for the toliets and huge queues for the bar. Next year please can we have a few more toliets and more bars - the bar by the JJB stage was very small for the amount of people in that area.
written by on 20/08/2008
V Festival was amazing, better than last year! Lets hope to see the phonics back there next year with the mighty Oasis.
written by johnheery on 30/06/2008
V Festival has some very good acts. Though you only two days of music. It's also very crowded and everything stops at midnight. Getting out of the arena is also hard. Overall, V is fourth behind glastonbury, leeds, and even pontins.
written by kriskringle on 15/11/2007
Good Bands, great atmosphere, but the amenities or services could be improved but it's a festival I guess it's like this everywhere! It just wouldn't be the same would it.
written by an11381 on 21/08/2007
V was my first festival and it was sooooo good, best time of my life (so far!)
Sounds like Chelmsford was the better crowd which meant the bands/artists committed more (going on reviews of the two different sites - I obviously wasn't at both!). The better the audience are the better the band, so when you watch a gig remember WOOP as loud as you can!
Wicked sweet time!
Seriously, if you're considering/doubting whether or not to go to your first festival, DO IT! Chances are you'll love it, but if you don't, you will have seen some great bands and you'll know to stick to gigs in the future.
The baby wipe is King of the Festival!
BRING ON NEXT YEAR!
Written on: 24/08/2007
It'd be hard to say who was the best to be honest with you, there were a group who stood out completely for me. The killers (obviously!), Kasabian (who surprised me), P!nk was very entertaining and the audience was loving it, Unklejam deserved a longer set (they only had 30minutes but it was really memorable!), oh and the editors they were very good.... and Mark Ronson.... see? I can't do it! I can't narrow it down!
<br/>The Foo fighters were good, but they aren't my cup of tea, and I don't really know any of their songs so couldn't join in at all.
<br/>
<br/>And probably most impressive (for me) was a 'band' called Rodrigo y Gabriela, they are two mexican acoustic guitarist, just them on stage but my my what a noise! They were probably the surprise of the weekend. And they made you body shake (especially when you were as close to the speakers as I was!). I'd only gone to them because my friend's dad likes them!
<br/>
<br/>For me there was only one disappointment of the weekend and that was in the form of The Wombats, but they made up for it with Kill the Director (which they opened with....) which was amazing live, shame about the rest of the set though.
written by Franky Baby on 03/08/2007
I went to the past two V Festivals' at Stafford and I'm due to go on my third in a couple of weeks. I think of all the festivals, V is a very corporate affair and there just doesn't seem to be a true festival vibe going on - it's more like they've tried to cram as many gigs as possible together and nothing more than that really... Saying that, as I mentioned earlier I am going again so it's not all bad. There's always a fantastic line up, and the weather was great in 2005. I've seen some brilliant performances there including Oasis & Scissor Sisters in 05 and Faithless and my old favourite, Paul Weller last year. As far as facilities go, I would say that they are generally below parr; the food was very over priced and the toilets got progressively worse but then I guess this is a festival, what do you expect? I also agree with another reviewer that last years festival was not the cleanest and some of the line up had a lot to answer for (I mean Sandi Thom? What is that about?).
Still, all in all it's worth going if you like music as there's so many acts on there's always something to satisfy. Definitely looking forward to V 2007 anyhow!
written by Clair on 21/08/2006
Well, that time of year flew around again, it didn't seem like yesterday coming back from V Festival, when I was so eager to learn that the pre released tickets were instantly on sale. After such a great line up last year I could hardly type my credit card details in fast enough in a quest for more of the same this year.
So now the morning after the weekend before and how do I feel - Disappointed and amazed at how they could get it so right last year and yet so wrong this time.
The line up to say the least was poor with the exception of the Puppet show put on by Beck which was excellent and Radiohead (in which we left half way through, in a bid to get out of the car park before 4am) and there were a few other good bands like Art Brut, who for me stole the show. But saying that there isn't a lot you can say when a festival, which genetically originates from rock has a line up of bands ( I use that term loosely) of Sugababes, Girls Aloud and even Sandi Thom headlining one of the stages.
As for the amenities these had taken a serious downturn from last year. One possible reason is that the capacity was increased to allow for the Glastonbury fall out. It was defiantly the worst toilets I had ever seen and the layout was not as compact as last year. The increase of tickets also proved a problem with camping spaces, as a few were turned away due to overcrowding even though they carried full and valid camping tickets.
One of my main gripes about this year was the mess, this comment is usually reserved for Leeds Festival but there is a good chance V could take the title for the dirtiest festival of the year.
On one final note, V you could learn a lot from T in the park, as this was clean, well organised and had a great line up, basically every thing you weren't this year.
All in all if you are into the music then go but never, never make the mistake of buying tickets before seeing the line up.
Written on: 24/08/2006
Spot on really. While I liked the lineup a bit more than you - Morrissey is always lovely, Rufus Wainwright was perfect, Bloc Party, Art Brut (Top of the Pops!), Radiohead....there were so many organizational issues with this year's festival that it really put me off. The site was foul, there were not enough toilets - you should never have to queue for 30-40 minutes, I've never had that happen, not at Glasto, not at Leeds, not anywhere. Queuing for an hour for bar tokens only to have to queue for another half hour for a beer is outrageous, the whole point of having the tokens is to make queuing for beer go quickly. They ran out of red wine by 8pm on Saturday, never had any Strongbow, so people waiting on Strongbow to arrive were slowing things down because staff couldn't serve people who wanted anything other than cider while they were standing around waiting on cider. The campsites were a joke - full up and the stewards wouldn't help you find a spot, even though it's their job! The toilets had 200+ person queues and didn't get cleaned out until after mid-day on Sunday meaning that only about 2% of them were usable on Sunday morning. Vile.
<br/>
<br/>Next, it's ridiculous that you should be expected to park your car, walk a mile or more with all your camping gear to the wristband exchange, and then walk back halfway to your car to a campsite and then walk around the campsite looking for a gap big enough for your tent. Why not do it like at Leeds or Summer Sundae where you can get into a campsite with a camping ticket, set up your gear and then go for a wristband? Or, maybe, set up the wristband exchange closer to the car parks? Why not organize the campsites better so only one is opened at a time and filled up, people are directed at where to camp and that way there's enough room for everyone who has paid for a camping ticket?
<br/>
<br/>Finally, the prices were outrageous. £10 for a programme, if you wanted to know the schedule as it was unavailable online still on Saturday morning when we set off. Why couldn't we have paid £5 for just the laminate? I didn't need a carrier bag and a magazine, I just wanted the timetable. Why not post the timetables up somewhere so people could see them? It was £5.50 for a jacket potato and I've been told some food stalls were charging up to £7 for a burger and chips - this is burger vans too, not restaurant quality food. This after you've paid up to £120 for a ticket plus £7 for parking (which is included in the ticket price at other festivals).
<br/>
<br/>We had a great time at V but only because the people were really friendly and everyone was making the best of a bad situation. There was nothing that the organisers did to make the festival good (barring booking Moz and Rufus), in fact it seemed they were doing everything they could to maintain their reputation for being money-grabbing, soulless corporate grunts trying to suck the life out of music and fun.
written by Browny175 on 21/08/2006
This was not my first time at the V festival, but I just can not understand the cost of the whole thing. You can't take anything in with you, not even water.
I'm trying my best not to moan, but you queue endlessly for beer tickets, then for your beer, then for the toilets, and when do you get a chance to listen to the music - raaah! And if you're hungry, make sure you take a bank loan out for some minuscule amount of plop. Next year I'm watching it on TV.
Written on: 22/08/2006
What was with the security? They were stopping people from leaving the arenas carrying beer in paper cups to their own tents!! In one tent (only a fraction filled) one guard went round telling everyone (even those sitting way at the back in the shadows) to stand up before the band came on! (We thought they were taking the mikey).
Written on: 11/09/2006
Apart from Keane was their anything else good? I also want to know if this year was different from the last time you went.
written by Clair on 13/03/2006
The V - Stafford festival was my first festival in a long time, and boy was it a good one (the 10 year anniversary in 2005). It was easy to get to, and the parking was simple, although a bit far from the campsite, and I would recommend some sort of trolley to transport tents etc.
Our campsite was directly in front of the main stage which proved more than useful when we needed to use the toilets. The main arena was extensive, but the design made it feel very compact safe and cosy.
The bands were all good crowd pleasers, but it was the atmosphere that shone through.
I would highly recommend it, and when I go this year I will be taking my kids!
written by Mindy on 09/06/2004
V Festival really is just one giant branding exercise for Virgin. However, it's not a bad festival if you catch it on a day where you like the music. Over the years it's been hit and miss but they seem to be improving things all the time. I'm actually a veteran of all 3 sites on which the festival has been held (Temple Newsham in Leeds in 1998, Weston Park in Stafford in 2000, and - weird though it sounds - Chelmsford also in 2000).
Both years I went the organization was good, the facilities were sparkling clean (well, at least as far as festivals go), the atmosphere was very jovial and there was a pretty wide range of music to choose from between all the stages. Over the years we saw James, The Verve, Ian Brown, Moby, Coldplay, Death in Vegas, Iggy Pop, The Webb Brothers, The Dandy Warhols, etc. It was pleasant and I'd certainly go back (and indeed I am this year!)
If I had to rate the various sites I'd probably say that Stafford is the best of the lot, in fact the best festival site, bar none I've been too because there was plenty of space, the stages were far enough apart that sound didn't spill over, you could get from place to place easily between bands, there was room to move and breathe, and it wasn't a nasty mud-pit stinking of toilets. I would NOT rate Chelmsford nearly as highly....
Overall, if you see some bands you like that are playing and you can afford a ticket, it's well-worth the trip.
written by sportdonkey on 08/06/2004
I've been to the V festival in Chelmsford twice, in 1999 and 2002. I camped there in 02, it rained a lot which was a big downer and ruined the festival spirit a bit. There was something really weird but strangely satisfying sheltering from the rain in the dance tent jumping about to hard core trance with a pint of lager and wearing a cagoule at 11am. Anyway enough of my reminiscing and rambling, if you live in that part of the world (SE England) and you like your music you really couldn't do much better than get yourself down to V. I've seen the Chilli's, Faithless, Foo Fighters, Stereophonics, Texas, Nelly Fuartardo, David Grey and loads that I can't even remember. This year's (2004) headliners and acts are Dido, Faithless, Kings Of Leon, Basement Jaxx, NERD, Jet and Massive Attack. So it should be another truly awesome event. Hylands Park is pretty nice too, I guess to a point a field is a field but the place has a bit of character and is not that hard to get to. I have two pieces of advice for this years festival goers, 1. See Faithless!! I liked their music but wasn't that bothered about seeing them live, but they were fantastic and probably the best live band I have ever seen. I've never heard anyone say anything else about them, truly awesome. 2. Tactical toilet stops a must for the campers. Trick is to save up for a big unload on Saturday mourning. When you first get into the arena were the stages are the toilets will be new and un-used, get it all out and wait till you get home on a Sunday. Under no circumstances do you want to be going in there in a Sunday, it will ruin the weekend for you. On a cleaner note, the food was nice but expensive.
Once we've checked over your question we will put it live on the site and our strong community of experts will hopefully give you some great answers that you find useful.
We will email you when the question is on the site
Once we've checked over your answer we will put it live on the site so others can gain from your experience. We rely on members like you to sustain our vibrant community so thanks again, we couldn't do it without you.
We will email your when your answer is on the site
Once we've checked over your answer we will put it live on the site so others can gain from your experience. We rely on members like you to sustain our vibrant community so thanks again, we couldn't do it without you.
We will email your when your answer is on the site
As rated by our community of reviewers
Tania's Response to an11381's Review
Written on: 24/08/2007
Great review, I didn't go this year (gutted!) but you are so right about baby wipes!!! They rule when it comes to festivals. So who was the best band you saw then?