V Festival organisers are hailing this year’s two-site festival a success after a warm weekend featuring fine performances from the Manic Street Preachers, Chemical Brothers and Stereophonics. In the region of 180,000 people attended the two-day event at Weston Park, Staffordshire and Hylands Park, Chelmsford.
Police confirmed only a small number of arrests had been made during the weekend. That said, they did caution 325 people for cannabis possession at the Staffordshire site, and confiscated some 2.4kg of the drug and a further 263 ecstasy tables and 7.8g of cocaine (one hell of a party at the police station then!). But Festival spokesman Andy Redhead told the BBC: "The police presence in stopping and searching for drugs increased by 50% this year. We have worked closely with police over the last 10 months and we are very pleased with the way things have gone."
On the music side, Stereophonics performed a new song - 'Madame Helga' - during their headline set, Starsailor covered the Elvis Presley track 'Can't Help Falling In Love' and played their Phil Spector produced 'Silence Is Easy' and Primal Scream, although playing mainly songs from new album 'Evil Heat', closed their set with the classic 'Movin' On Up'.