A V Sign To The Weather

The U.K.’s V Festivals had mixed luck with the weather as the Chelmsford site seemed to duck the showers and the midlands site spent the first day under a steady downpour.

But it made no difference to attendance. The twinned event always sells out in advance and has established itself as one of the U.K.’s major outdoor happenings.

The Chelmsford, Essex, gathering was hit by a sudden 10-minute downpour just as the gates were opening on the first day, but that was the end of the rain.

For the rest of the weekend, the clouds hovered menacingly before passing over to dump their loads elsewhere. A fair amount seems to have fallen on the Weston Park site in Staffordshire, where it rained throughout Saturday.

BBC’s online news reported fans were unhappy about being charged £10 for a program and about prices at food outlets, but that could be put into perspective when the first ticket sales for V 2007 are announced.

There’s a limited but unspecified number on sale until August 29th (at £100 for the weekend or £120 with camping), but it’s likely they’ll be snapped up long before then.

The combined capacities of the two sites is about 150,000. This year’s event sold out in less than a day.

Among the acts on view August 19-20 were Radiohead, Morrissey, Faithless, Keane, Beck, Razorlight, Kasabian, My Morning Jacket, Gavin DeGraw, Bloc Party, and Paul Weller.

– John Gammon