The V Festival & Weston Park Staffordshire - August 2004

Were the people at V in Weston Park the best, friendliest and most patient festival crowd this year? We think so!

The V Festival at Weston Park Stafford was a winner as far as we were concerned - why? because it was one of the nicest festival crowds we've been in for a very long time. We never saw any trouble nor anyone behaving badly over the two days we were there - in fact quite the opposite people were so friendly and approachable it was a pleasure and a privilege to be there. Plenty of concerns (as always!) about the organiser's ability to organise things at times - the worst evidence of poor organisation we saw was the traffic mayhem - but in essence what a festival and what a great crowd! Despite the forecasts it just didn't bother to rain on us................overall we rate it very highly although we do think the organisers need to address some of the issues we will expand on.

For instance the old thorny issue of crowd surfing - we were quite impressed to see a great big sign discouraging crowd surfing - more than that really - it actually went a step further and said unequivocally that crowd surfers would be ejected - wow - now there's a big positive step toward crowd safety eh? well done V organisers we thought but then they just had to go and spoil it - do these people charged with organising these events just not bother to communicate amongst themselves? On stage to rapturous delight stormed N.E.R.D and we have to say that a brilliant set ensued and the crowd were really into it until - step forward Pharrel Williams and for some odd reason he decides to wind that crowd right up there - ah Britain the home of crowd surfing and moshing! what you all doing down there etc.etc. he spouted WHY? we spoke to people after the set, they had been thoroughly enjoying themselves up to that point when once wound up by the band the crowd at the front went wild and a minority ruined the experience for the majority. People were genuinely upset - what did the organisers do eh? NOTHING - were there any announcements at any time about crowd surfing - you bet your life there weren't. We conclude that the organisers of the V festival were just paying lip service to this important crowd safety measure and had absolutely no intention of following through. We did see crowd surfers following Pharrel Williams urging people to do so, as far as we're aware no evictions took place. This means that what was displayed was obviously a worthless and pointless sign and we further conclude that they were just trying to make themselves appear as if they gave a damn about crowd safety - shame really - a great opportunity to actually be responsible missed. Does highlight the power of the performer though - doesn't it?

We loved the cool 'Dead Men Walking' chaps AKA Ben and Nick who were well into the festival spirit when we met them - they certainly couldn't be missed could they! A great time was being had and they were an example of the fun people we met on site.
Like thousands of others on the Sunday they had been caught up in the preposterous crowd management strategy that could only have been accomplished by sadistic organisers who were intent on making us miss the entertainment - I mean why let the crowd be entertained when you can cram 'em into cattle pens eh? (could only have been done by ACME surely??) people who arrived on site couldn't get in because of the poor ingress arrangements (isn't ingress and egress an absolute basic?) - anyway these lads certainly had had a few hairy moments whilst being crushed in the crowd( as did many other people) so there was a lot of potential for injury of one sort or another (not to mention frayed tempers)
This had to be down to appalling management by both organisers and security - there were several security firms on site but the major firm were Rock Steady, a really experienced and professional crew so - we have to ask why there were such awful queues on the Sunday morning and what went wrong, we find it hard to believe that they think this sort of chaos is acceptable either for us or the staff - they knew how many tickets had been sold - they knew how many people to expect and at what peak times they would arrive - and had they planned properly for it? ABSOLUTELY NOT - there can be little excuse for the mayhem people experienced on trying to get into the venue. It wasn't overcrowded so it wasn't exactly rocket science to get it right - was it? Just why did people have to queue in crushing conditions? why were day tickets, campers and weekend ticket holders shoved together and treated like cattle? Were the organisers just having a laugh at our expense? Why were there insufficient entrances? It was testament to the fact that it was such a friendly, patient and long suffering crowd really and no thanks to the organisers that there weren't serious problems amongst this mayhem - just another little example of the contempt with which some organisers tend to treat the public. Were those searches really about security or did they have more to do with ensuring that people had to spend a lot of money on over priced water eh? We think it's the organisers inability or unwillingness to tackle these simple issues that leads to many of us feeling so frustrated and having our enjoyment of an event unnecessarily marred - so come on organisers you can, and should, do better than this. Oh - and were you confiscating bottles of water? - if so why???

So then organisers of the V Festival - you told us all on your website that all those not using the proper toilets would be evicted from the site! eh - pardon? As you looked at the stage to the left was one big open toilet in open view!! Not much point in making empty threats eh? Either enforce it or leave it out - mixed messages are never a good idea and you can't expect people to take you seriously if you insist on spouting forth and enforcing nowt.

On a positive note you seemed to get it right with the toilets - it's unheard of - they were clean and there was toilet paper in the loos on the Sunday - we were impressed with that one but would ask that you also make sure you fill up the hand sanitation as there were no hand washing facilities around the loos that we used - we all know how important hygiene is so maybe you could look at that one next year? The cleanest toilets we've ever found at an event like this - so well done - the only down side was the long queues - were there sufficient toilets in place?

Hello to the Wolverhampton crew on the left - two of the nicest people we met who reminded us how great Opal Fruits are!! Cheers guys.

The dude on the right is Budweisers best friend - he drank it - he showered in it - he loved it large!

At the back of the Dido crowd.

We didn't much like:

We really, really hated

The bloody traffic situation - who the hell was in charge of this major fiasco - Noddy and Big Ears???
We give them no stars for their traffic management
On the Saturday the 10 mile journey took us two and three quarter hours - thus ensuring we missed Jamie Cullem - oh the joy of crawling in this traffic cannot be overestimated. No traffic control where all the major roads converged so a major free for all was in force. Ah well we thought - that must be the worst of it - but oh no - getting out of the place on Saturday night defied belief. We (and many others) were stuck for over two hours trying to get out - totally inadequate exits and SEP security completely out of their depth. It certainly wasn't the fault of the front line staff - in fact all those I spoke to were completely apologetic and told me that they had begged the managers to open other gates but had been denied permission - so they were getting it in the neck from some irate customers. However, as they had done all weekend - the crowd bore this unacceptable fiasco with amazing stoicism - I guess there wasn't much choice we were absolutely stuck. To be quite frank I could have managed the traffic better - but then so could a five year old - it was a disgrace.

On the Sunday we got into the venue all right but then got stuck in the queues trying to get into the arena - another unacceptable failing on the part of the organisers. Like many people we had work to get back for on the Monday so reluctantly decided that we would miss Muse - a top favourite - in order to miss the chaos of the previous night. Hah - how naïve and trusting can you be eh?? We duly made our way back to the car only to find exactly the same hassle as the night before - SHAME ON YOU SEP (to illustrate the attitude of some SEP staff - we were walking into the arena when a ruddy great truck full of SEP staff were driving along - some git in the truck was yelling out of the window "Get of the fucking road") what price customer service eh? Not all staff had such an attitude - we spoke to some who just couldn't believe the chaos and were clearly upset at their inability to help members of the public - some told us that they had worked in excess of 14 hours the night before with inadequate clothing so had been freezing and had not had proper breaks - what price Health and Safety eh?

We dread to think how much people who left the venue after the headline acts had to suffer in a situation that was both predictable and preventable. Let's face it - it's the organisers job to organise and we think that they really let themselves (and us) down very badly over the traffic arrangements. We don't know about you but we think it's unacceptable that traffic ingress and egress cannot be better managed - okay we accept that there will always be some problems when 65,000 people want to leave a venue - but they couldn't even get it right for those who took the decision to leave early - come on organisers - it's not rocket science is it? SEP's job was to manage the traffic on site - why couldn't they do this? - and what are you going to do about it to improve conditions for us next year?

But was it safe?

We give them 3 stars for safety because they let themselves down badly with traffic management and the Sunday ingress which was unsafe. But to be honest we thought this festival was pretty good overall, it wasn't over crowded which certainly added to comfort and safety on site.
We had some concerns about the tents and felt that if there were a major safety issue organisers would have struggled to cope. The crowd crushing to get into the arena on Sunday really let them down on overall safety here.

V Festival organisers let themselves down by:

Their lack of good crowd management on entering the arena on the Sunday - this chaos could, and should have been avoided.
Not being environmentally aware - lack of bins ans people pissing wherever - this wasn't discouraged.
Not adequately addressing the needs of people with disabilities and not providing adequate staff training in this area.
Only paying lip service to the crowd surfing issue and by not communicating this measure properly to the acts they hired.
Not properly addressing traffic issues - this was utter and unacceptable chaos and spoiled things for thousands of people.
Not providing a programme with the tickets - paying an extra £6 to find out who was playing where was not acceptable.
Not providing safety information for fans.
Charging for everything - parking, programmes etc.etc. - it felt exploitative

V Festival organisers were good at:

We award them four stars for the things they got right
Organising a great line up
Organising clean toilets
Providing some information on the website (not enough - but it's a start that can be built on)
Mostly providing approachable and friendly staff (let down by SEP and inability to manage ingress)
Not over selling and overcrowding the arena
Good welfare services provided
Good medical services

We give the V Festival organisers an overall score of 3 out of 5 stars

The public were undoubtedly a five star crowd!