V Festival 2007

V Festival came to Australia for the first time this year and it only seemed appropriate to go. Actually, to start with not that many people were up for it. Kirby and I got our tickets a while ago, H managed to blag guest list via Katie and Gareth while Deano, Martin and Claire picked up their tickets even cheaper than face value on Ebay. The festival hadn't sold out.

I don't know why it didn't sell out. It was held on the same site as Good Vibrations, which did sell out, but that festival was for too busy (as you can see in the pictures) and maybe many people thought this would be the case with V. Luckily it wasn't. The festival was spread out over the same area but there were only 3 stages instead of 5. Because there was a few thousand less people in attendance there was plenty of grass to sit down on and chill out. And the festival was sponsored by Coopers Green, which is my favourite Australian beer (unfortunately there was only one Coopers Bar so the queue was huge, as you can see below. Fortunately though, Australians have it all sorted when it comes to getting booze quickly and you didn't have to wait too long). Winner! The weather at V was perfect for a festival as well, with the temperature in the mid twenties.

H and I went into the city with Katie and Simone and made our way to a pub in Paddington, near the entrance to the site, where we met everyone for a few pre-festival Coopers, Coopers.

Once we'd entered the site - which took ages because you had to queue to show your ticket, then queue to get a wristband - we spent some time relaxing on the grass whilst drinking Coopers and taking in the afternoon sunshine. Everyone was up for a good time.

The line-up was quite strong, with the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Beck, the Pet Shop Boys, 2 Many DJs and the Pixies all playing, but Groove Armada was the act I was most looking forward to seeing. I've seen them before in Bristol, when they played the Academy, but apart from TV footage, I'd never seen them pay at a festival. I was hoping that tunes like 'Easy', 'Madder' and 'Superstylin'' would be great moments and they didn't disappoint. All of our mates loved the gig. Naturally I took lots of pictures and videos so here they are;

Groove Armada Intro - here and here
Easy
Chicago
A Song For Stan
Madder
Superstylin'

There's a couple of random videos taken during their set as well - here and here.

I reckon that set was one of the best festival experiences I've had since arriving here. The atmosphere was incredible, as you can see in the videos (sorry about the sound quality, by the way!).

After Groove Armada finished it was time for a pit stop for more Coopers as we walked past Beck on the main stage. By this point a few people had gone off to see different acts, and H, Martin, Claire and I headed off to the Other Stage to watch 2 Many DJs. We had hoped to meet Kirby there but given the number of people there, it was always going to be difficult.

2 Many DJs played a wicked electronic set which was just what we needed.

Here's a few videos;

Lithium
Pump Up The Jam
Blue Monday

From there it was off to the main stage to catch the last half hour of the Pixies. H had gone off earlier to meet Kirby so I checked them out with Martin and Claire. I only know one of their songs, 'Where Is My Mind?', and that was thanks to 'Fight Club', but it was nice to sit down on the grass, chill out and listen to the end of the set.

We had planned to meet everyone at the end if the festival by the cannon at the edge of the site! Unfortunately a fence put paid to that idea so a plan was formed to meet in a local pub, which was having a bit of a festival after-party. We also got to see the last twenty minutes or so of Liverpool thrashing Arsenal 4-1 and the start of Man Utd againsy Blackburn. For Premiership starved me, that was great. The DJ also decided to stick a few tunes from'Lovebox' on which the crowd seemed to enjoy as most of them had just seen GA at the festival. I'm not sure why he followed that up with a remix on 'All Night Long' by Lionel Richie but he was one of those rubbish pub DJ's who likes to talk over records! Time to leave.....

I left with H and Claire and we had one hell of a mission getting home.

It was a brilliant day out. Next up, it's The Great Escape festival.....this weekend!