The V Festival 2004 By DJ Chris Plant

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Well, I managed to get 2 tickets for me and my friend Alex on Ebay for £140 (including camping on the campsite next to V Campsite). We set off at 7am on Friday 20th August to beat the early birds and to make sure that we had a good place to pitch the tent. We packed loads of stuff for the festival (infact we packed too much stuff). We spent about £100 on food and beer. Well you gotta have beer haven't you ??!!?? When we arrived in Essex, we stopped off for a bacon butty at a greasy spoon cafe (it's the law, haha).

We had just got out of the car when this van pulled alongside us and we couldn't believe our eyes. Alongside the van in big letters, read Willerby Holiday Homes .. Hull ..

And that is were we had just bloody come from... Try and get away from Hull (Willerby) for the weekend and you bump into people from the same place. I don't know why, but I always seem to meet people from Hull when i'm either on holiday, down south or in the middle of nowhere (lol). We got chatting to the two geezers in the van and they had been in Essex all week fixing some caravans for some holiday makers. They were very jealous when we told them that we had tickets for the V2004 Festival in Chelmsford. The two blokes said that they were glad to be going back to Hull.

They couldn't stand another minute of Eaassyy Guvnar. or Chas n Dave in the ear singing Rabbit hehe

Anyway, we finally found the Montpeliers Farm Campsite (which sounds the sort of place that Del Boy would stay). We were obviously very early because there were only about 5 tents already set up. The lady gave us our wrist bands for the weekend and said Don't lose them, cause we will not replace them and you will not be allowed back in to this campsite (well, the bare field!).

Alex parked the car and I cracked open 2 bottles of Stella (again it's the law). Time roughly 10am in the morning! We then began unloading the car which was fun (not). We had enough supplies to last us until V2005.

We got the tent out of the car and started to put it up, which wasn't an easy task as the wind was bloody strong. We were just about to say sod it, when a group of people shouted Need a hand mate? in a cockney accent. They were so kind and helped us to erect our 2 man tent (ooh pardon). Finally, we were ready to chill out for the rest of the day. Approx 1pm we decided to go for a walk , which was very dangerous because it was main roads all around us and no footpaths to walk on. We seemed to walk for miles and miles (which I didn't like, because I was still waking up from the early morning alarm clock).

After walking Alan Partridge style (singing Goldfinger and skipping through grass on the lay by), we found a pub and a little village. We stopped off for a pint or four and sat in the beer garden. There were loads of the bands in the beer garden and roadies for the stars. I didn't take my camera on the walk which was a shame.

We stayed in the pub for about an hour and a half and then decided to head back to the campsite. I then realised that I had forgot my pump for my Airbed, so I was gonna rough it for the weekend (that's why my backs hurting as I write this). We had a few beers that night and finally got to sleep about 2am. The next day was mental and we woke up about 8am I think. Everyone was partying outside, kicking footballs around and stereos pumping out every kind of music. We got the camp stove out of the tent and did ourselves some bacon and sausage butties - ummmmm. Not really Egon Ronay or Gordon Ramsey style, but it was good enough for a muddy field.

We set off to the festival (which was only through some woods) and it took about 5 minutes. When we saw the amount of people on the other side, we nearly dropped dead in shock. All different people, coming to see their favourite bands and artists.

We passed through the stewards who tore off the ticket stub and went to check out the official tour shirts. Alex bought the blue V2004 festival shirt and I bought the yellow one. I also bought a Kings Of Leon badge and a Tour Programme which was good value at just £5.00, packed full of information and articles and a map of the V site. It also had some very interesting facts in it about V..

V was the first festival to take place simultaneously over two sites at V96... Over 240,000 pints of beer are sold at each site (I think it's more) ... Over 1500 acres will be used by V festival goers at this year's event. That's enough space for over 860 football pitches.. and loads more facts.... On Saturday, we saw the following artists (whilst moving around the site):

V Stage - Big Brovaz, Pink, Faithless, Dido, Muse NME Stage - Hal, The Killers, Keane JJB Arena - Phoenix Music Choice Stage - The Crimea

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Photographs courtsey and Copyright © DJ Chris Plant

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