V Festival 2015 Line-up Announcement - Calvin Harris and Kasabian

V Festival 2015 Line-up Announcement - Calvin Harris and Kasabian

V Festival 2015, sponsored by Virgin Media, is pulling out all of the stops to celebrate 20 years since it opened its gates ‘96, unveiling an incredible home-grown line up. Global platinum-selling artist Calvin Harris and Iconic rockers Kasabian are today announced as the headliners for V Festival’s Virgin Media stage.

Taking place across the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd August 2015, the local lads from Leicester and the DJ from north of the border will be joined by a host of music heavyweights to ensure V Festival sees out its second decade in style.

Joining the headliners across the two festival sites in Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire will be a supporting cast of Britain’s finest talent and biggest names. Music lovers with this summer’s hottest ticket will also see performances from recent four-time Grammy and 2015 Brit winner Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, The Script, Hozier, George Ezra, Stereophonics, Brit winners Paloma Faith and James Bay, Olly Murs, Tom Jones, Clean Bandit, Kodaline, Ella Henderson, Nero and Courteeners plus many more to be announced across four stages at the two festival sites.

Making his debut on top of the bill, Calvin Harris said: “V Festival is always an incredible time and I can't wait to headline it this year. See you there!”

Kasabian’s Sergio Pizzorno, said: “V is for victory, V is for voodoo, V is for vacuum cloud, V is for very very very very excited. See you in the fields!”

The hugely popular Glee Club Comedy Tent also returns as the festival’s fifth stage this year, with a hilarious line-up that will be announced in the coming months.

Festival Director, Simon Moran comments: “We wanted to champion British talent at this year’s festival and with the likes of Calvin and Kasabian leading the way we don’t think it’ll disappoint. The eclectic mix of established artists and rising stars, with a few more in the pipeline, means that once again there is something for everyone at V Festival.

“It’s incredible to think what V has achieved in two decades. When we started out in ‘96, we were two stages and one tent, with the northern site only hosting one day of acts. Since then we’ve hosted some of the most iconic acts from around the world. Here’s to another decade!”     

Over the festival weekend there’ll also be sets from The Kooks, Marina and The Diamonds, The Proclaimers, Jess Glynne, Andy C, Imelda May, Gregory Porter, Fuse ODG, Clean Bandit, Duke Dumont, Jessie Ware, Ella Eyre, Hannah Wants, Reverend and the Makers, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Annie Mac.

The glamorous V Style camping will also return for its fifth year. V Style is now an established part of the V Festival family, giving music fans the chance to experience the best of both worlds – enjoying a mix of music and comedy and relaxing at pampering stations and in ready built bell tents, huts, and luxury yurts.

Festival Director, Bob Angus comments: “As in previous years, we want to again emphasise how important it is for fans to buy their tickets from official outlets listed on VFestival.com. This will ensure they don’t miss out on what promises to be an non-stop fun-packed weekend.”

Tickets go on sale from March 6th at 9am with fans advised to visit www.vfestival.com, where all official outlets are detailed. V organisers again stress to fans that purchasing tickets from unofficial outlets could lead to disappointment.

The full line up includes: Kasabian, Calvin Harris, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, The Script, Hozier, George Ezra, Stereophonics, Paloma Faith, James Bay, Olly Murs, Chvrches, Imelda May, Kodaline, Ella Henderson, Nero, Reverend and the Makers, The Courteeners, Marina and The Diamonds, The Proclaimers, Tom Jones, Jess Glynne, Andy C, The Kooks, Gregory Porter, Fuse ODG, Clean Bandit, Duke Dumont, Jessie Ware, Ella Eyre, Hannah Wants, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Annie Mac.

Beyonce and Kings Of Leon to headline V Festival 2013

Beyonce and Kings Of Leon will headline V Festival’s Virgin Media Stage at V Festival 2013. As previously rumoured, the two artists will headline the twinned events in Essex and Staffordshire this August and Beyonce's set will be her only European festival performance of 2013.

Kings Of Leon will top the other night, returning to play V Festival for the first time since 2011, the band are expected to release their sixth studio album this summer.

V Festival takes place across two twinned site, Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire, and this year will take place from Saturday 17 - Sunday 18 August 2013.

Welsh stadium rock giants Stereophonics, The Script, Double Brit winner Emeli Sandé, Calvin Harris, Beady Eye, Jessie J, Two Door Cinema Club, The Vaccines and Basement Jaxx have all been announced tonight for the V Festival 2013 line-up this August.

Olly Murs, Paloma Faith, James, Rita Ora, The Courteeners, Jason Mraz, Fun., Labrinth, Ellie Goulding, Kendrick Lamar, Of Monsters And Men, Maverick Sabre, Travis, DJ Fresh, Jessie Ware and Maximo Park have all been announced for V Festival 2013.

Lianne La Havas, Rudimental, Scouting For Girls, Deacon Blue, Little Mix, Ocean Colour Scene, The Fratellis, Gabrielle Aplin and Laura Mvula have also been announced for the V Festival line-up.

Click here to see the full V Festival line-up.

V Festival Directors Bob Angus, Simon Moran and Dennis Desmond commented on the announcement: "We’ve worked hard to bring fans an exciting and diverse line-up, securing Beyonce for an exclusive European Festival appearance and Kings Of Leon as headliners is a great achievement. These acts along with one of the strongest bills in V Festival's 18 year history is something we are very proud of. We have a reputation for bringing fans the best world class acts and breakthrough artists, 2013 is set to be another sensational year.”

Glee Club Comedy Tent will also makes a return this year, with stand-up performers to be announced in the coming weeks.

V Festival is now in its 18th year and has previously enjoyed performances from the likes of Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis, Eminem and Foo Fighters.

V Festival tickets for 2013 are currently unavailable and will go on general sale on Friday March 1st at 9am. Virgin Media customers can get access to tickets early on Tuesday Feb 26 at 9am.

Early Bird V festival tickets on sale Wednesday 22nd August

With music lovers still elated from this year’s incredible V Festival, sponsored by Virgin Media, fans are being given the chance to get their hands on tickets for V Festival 2013 early – at 2012 prices.

V Festival 2013 will take place across the weekend of August 17th – 18th, with tickets are on sale from Wednesday 22nd August from 9am, for a limited period of time. So fans are urged to be quick.

Luxury camping tickets through V Style, where fans can reserve their own ready built Pod Pads, Cloud Yurts, Tipis and pop-up hotel rooms will also be available, along with festival ticket and coach packages through the Big Green Coach at 2012 prices.

V Festival Director, Simon Moran comments:

“With this year’s stellar line up, there was once again an incredible demand for tickets and as ever we’d like to give V fans the chance to get their hands on next year’s early. This 2012 line up was one of the most exciting yet so next year’s festival has a lot to live up to, but I’m sure it won’t disappoint.”

As always, festival organisers are urging fans to ensure that they only use official ticket channels when buying tickets and not to purchase tickets from unofficial or secondary outlets.  Visit www.vfestival.com for details of all official ticket outlets.

V festival 2012 - Weston Park Sunday Review

Day two of V festival brought a wet start to the Weston Park site but by the time we came to watch Emeli Sande the rain had all but stopped. Emeli’s strong female vocals bouncing all around the area and sparking the very large crowd  to sing along to her hit “Next to me” amongst other songs in her set. We wandered around to watch Tim Burgess, sporting a fetching Dappy style hat which underneath saw a thick head of bright blonde hair, sang the back catalogue of The Charlatans hits to a wet but very jubilant crowd.

Moving over to watch Marlon Roudette play the undercover stage, we were greeted with a wonderful musician and vocalist. A former member of the band “Mattafix”, Marlon may have not drawn a huge crowd, but he certainly won over the crowd that was there. His vocals are smooth, clear and certainly unique. He doesn’t get to play much in the UK but on the strength of this set, I’d definitely like to see more of this young man.

On the 4 music stage, Tinie Tempah was rocking the crowds but we decided to go see Newton Faulkner, mainly to see what all the fuss about him is. With his long dreads and wonderful guitar playing I can see the attraction although I found the covers he played, detracted from his own music, and found myself wanting him to just do his own material which I found far superior. But on seeing him play I can definitely see the attraction and although I haven’t heard much of his recorded stuff I have the feeling that the live version is far superior.

With so much going on, its hard to see everything at V festival, but we managed to briefly catch some of Keane, with lead singer, Alex Ebert, looking a lot thinner than when I last remembered due to, as a woman next to me in the crowd proceeded to inform me, his slim fast diet. We also managed to catch a few numbers by Sub Focus. Sounding a lot like Pendulum, their amazing light show was matched with some high energy music but they should have been far further up the bill to really draw the crowds.

Tim Minchin, was starting his set at the same time as Sub Focus, so we shot across to see some of his set. We had caught him previously at Rockness were he had played solo. This time around he was joined on stage by a band. This, for me, took away a lot of the uniqueness and most of the time, drowned out Tim’s vocals and did nothing to add to the set itself.

Finally for us, we had the one and only Noel Gallagher to witness. With his high flying birds, this was a highly anticipated set and one he didn’t let anyone down on. Mixing his new stuff with Oasis material worked a treat, although as most of his new work is already full of sing-a-long and chant lyrics, it would be easier just to do a 30-45 min set of just that alone. But once again, hearing the crowd sing along to Noel’s lyrics was truly an experience I had missed since the split of Oasis and going by the reaction to songs like “Little by little” and “Supersonic”, I’m guessing most of the audience had to. Finishing on the inevitable “Don’t look back in anger” Noel rounded off a faultless set.

Review by Thomas Lennon

V festival 2012 - Weston Park Saturday Review

The first day of V saw everyone basking in a whole lot of sunshine while soaking up all the different musical genres on offer. With four different stages covering new, popular and a few all out legendary acts, you could say that at times you were spoilt for choice for who you wanted to listen to, but ours started of with The Enemy, who rocked the 4 Music stage to its core with their indie rock sound, including "Had Enough" and "Away From Here", which had the crowd bouncing and singing along, despite the heat.  

Next up was Tom Jones, who hit the Virgin Media stage doing what Tom does best, blasting his way through a 50 minute set of his vast back catalogue. With his Welsh lilt cascading across the arena with opening number, "Mama Told Me Not Too Come", crowd sing along favourite, "Delilah" and a dirty blues track, originally by Howlin Wolf called "Evil", which he collaborated with Jack White on earlier this year, Tom Jones certainly still knows how to whip that crowd up into a frenzy and definitely crosses over to any age group that was there and you can clearly see he still loves every single second of it.  

Off we trotted then to the Arena tent, to get a bit of a break from the sunshine and see a lot of people coming along for an 80's electro pop nostalgia trip with the Human League. I have to admit, I was never a big fan and for me personally, their music is very similar, so much so, that I thought they'd played the same song twice, but their fans loved it all. With them taking to the stage all clad in black and to be honest looking quite severe and futuristic, think Matrix crossed with Demolition Man outfits, they soon ditched the severe look for a bit of glitter and glitz while taking us back in time with "Fascination", "Mirror Man" and what seemed to have one of the best reactions from the crowd of the weekend, "Don't You Want Me", the only song that received a bigger response was "Don't Look Back In Anger", who'd have though eh!!! 

Snow Patrol were finally back at V for the first time since 2009 and started off their set with a few slower, more melancholy numbers, which I think gave everyone a chance to have a bit of a breather, thankfully, that didn’t last for too long as someone through a giant inflatable penis at Gary Lightbody, who immediately broke down into a fit of giggles mid song, and then the rock started. The set was mixed with new and old including, my all time favourite, "Cars" and "Run", which I can now listen to again, after Leona Lewis managed to destroy it for me for quite some time. 

The Happy Monday's were in the Arena tent and it was one packed out place. With the legendary Bez introducing them, they played a set full of favourites and some older more obscure tracks, but got the biggest response from the crowd with "Step On" and "Kinky Afro", which saw Bez doing what Bez does best and I think that’s what some people turn up for!! With Suggs from Madness stage invading, being escorted off and sneaking back on to be dance support, he really does like doing this now a days, and Rozalla on fine vocal form as usual, it was just unfortunate, that Shaun Ryder's vocals were a bit muffled and you had to really strain to hear him at times, but he did take everyone back to the "Beefa" days when hedonism was second nature to the Monday's, but even though their full on partying days may be behind them, they still manage to capture the hearts of all us 90's kids that remember their heady days and what they brought to all of us, including making maraca's cool again!! 

As dusk was settling over Weston Park, LMFAO, took to the 4 Music stage to headline the Saturday night, and whether you love them or hate them, you cannot deny that they put on one hell of an energetic show, with zebras running across the stage and a big pink bear pretending to play DJ decks and so much neon it started to hurt your eyes. Opening with "Sorry for Party Rocking" they continued on the same full on party thread and had the crowd hooked, unfortunately, they clashed with The Killers so we missed the last part of their performance and the two most famous songs, "Sexy and I know It" and "Party Rockers" which I was dying to see them perform as well, but judging by the noise from the crowd they went down an absolute storm. 

  

Final act for us was The Killers, who gave one hell of a performance to end the Saturday night at the Virgin Media stage, with a massive turn out, they did their crowd proud. Playing all the crowds favourites, including "Mr Brightside" and "Read My Mind" and covered Oasis's "Don't Look Back in Anger" which had the biggest response of the night. The 90 minute set passed by with a flash of an eye and before you knew it the main stage was in darkness, and we were left there wanting more, and The Killers did to as they came back on amid huge applause and cheers to perform "Jenny was a Friend of Mine" and "When You were Young" amid a backdrop of fireworks. The only thing missing was Brandon Flowers feathered shouldered jacket!! 

Review by Alison Goggin

Ed Sheeran Adds Some Rizzle-Dazzle As V 2012 Goes Out With A Bang

The Stone Roses and The Killers drew the curtain on another exhilarating V Festival, sponsored by Virgin Media, with performances that had both Chelmsford and Staffordshire rocking.  Though Yorkshire born Ed Sheeran stole the show, raising the roof on the Arena in Weston Park with two unique collaborations. First up was Michael Payne singing Little Lady, shortly followed by Rizzle Kicks, who lifted the crowd to dizzy heights with a hair raising rendition of You Need Me.

Down in Chelmsford, Tinie Tempah got the Virgin Media stage crowd jumping with a performance of Pass Out and Frisky. While Snow Patrol followed shortly with a spectacular performance of their hits Chasing Cars and Run as the sun went down over the main stage.

The rain held off for day two in Weston Park as Noel Gallagher arrived on stage and lifted a ready to rock audience after seeing his beloved City win 3-2. Noel’s inspiring set was a hit with the ladies and saw him dodging bras thrown at him from the Virgin Media stage crowd. 

Down South, festival goers basked in a second day of glorious sunshine as Lawson performed Maroon 5’s Move Like Jagger and The Voice breakout star, Bo Bruce, serenaded the crowds with a rendition of U2s With or Without You. While Essex’s own Olly Murs surprised fans with a special rendition of It Must Be Love when he joined his heroes Madness on stage.

Rita Ora, who took to the Arena stage in the afternoon, was looking stunning in a red fringed basque, topped off her weekend by asking the Arena crowd to help her celebrate her first number one single How we Do.

Stone Roses front man Ian Brown was in high spirits before he stepped onto the main stage to wow the crowds at their first V Festival appearance, by cruising round the VIP area and taking revelers for trips on a golf buggy.

The amazing weekend was drawn to a spectacular finale in Weston Park with a jaw dropping firework display, rounding off another incredible year in V Festival’s 17-year history.  

  

Early Bird tickets for V Festival 2013 go on sale on Wednesday 22nd August from 9am, for a limited period of time. So fans are urged to be quick. Fans can also book luxury camping tickets through V Style and coach packages at 2012 prices. As always, festival organisers are urging fans to ensure that they only use official ticket channels when buying tickets and not to purchase tickets from unofficial or secondary outlets.  Visit www.vfestival.com for details of all official ticket outlets.

Professor Green, Wretch 32 added to V Festival line-up

Contary to popular belief Dolly Parton the queen of country music has not been added to this years V Festival line up.

But Professor Green,Labrinth, Chiddy Bang and Wretch 32 have been announced to add to a bill that already has Eminem and Plan B and Rhianna on it.

To see the line-ups click for Hylands Park, Chelmsford or Weston Park, Staffordshire.

Tickets were priced at £175 for a weekend pass with camping, and £149 weekend pass without camping. A day ticket was priced at £83.50, and a campervan pass is priced at £99. Only VIP Luxury packages are still available.