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!!!!

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.

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!

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.