For fans of pop music, the only way was Essex this weekend – Hylands Park, Chelmsford, to be specific, for V Festival, now in its 18th year.
Known in snobbier circles as “the music festival for those who don’t like music”, V is actually expert at giving its punters what they want: popular artists playing the hits.
Looking and sounding like a homegrown Rihanna, Rita Ora took to the 4 Music stage under the last of the Sunday sunshine. The anthemic Shine Ya Light cued a mass singalong, while the guitar-driven How We Do (Party) captured the festival’s happy-go-lucky spirit.
Over at the main stage, Kings of Leon failed to create quite the same positive vibe.
“This is the last show on our tour, so I want to have fun,” insisted frontman Caleb Followill, sounding like what he actually wanted was the comfort of his own bed.
Thankfully, the band’s music was more animated. Fans was galloping folk-rock, while Back Down South was a harmony-filled homage to their Oklahoma roots. Elsewhere, all the usual V elements were present and correct: overpriced food and drink; a clientele that looked like it divided its time equally between the gym, the tanning salon and the mirror.
But there were also a few surprises. Not least local boy Olly Murs’s assertion that he offered better value than Saturday’s headliner, Beyoncé: “Twenty minutes late? I wouldn’t do that to you, Essex.”
But there were more exciting sounds available elsewhere. Such as drum ’n’ bass collective Rudimental, whose late-afternoon set proved that, in the right hands, chart music can be both edgy and exciting. Waiting All Night and Feel the Love sent pints skywards – an official sign of appreciation at V.
Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar restricted his observations to the inebriation of the crowd. “I know a lot of you are drunk as f*** right now,” he said, perceptively, before embarking on the tip-top hip-hop of Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe.
Those in search of stone circles need not apply. But for fans of out-and-out pop music, V remains a smash hit.
