United Kingdom

The V Festival is an annual music festival held in the United Kingdom during the penultimate weekend in August. Organised by Metropolis Music and SJM Concerts, the event is held at two parks simultaneously which share the same bill; artists perform at one location on Saturday and then swap on Sunday. The sites are located at Hylands Park and Weston Park in South Staffordshire. Although predominantly a rock music festival, a wide range of musical genres are accepted; in recent years pop acts have become ever more common.

The "V" represents the Virgin Group, with the event being sponsored by Virgin Media and televised on Channel 4 and 4 Music.

The idea for V came in 1996 when Pulp's front man Jarvis Cocker announced he would love to play two outdoor venues in two days. Pulp's promoters got together and came up with the idea of putting the gig into Victoria Park Warrington and Hylands Park Chelmsford giving fans in both the North and South a chance to see the band. Then came the idea of adding more bands to the bill, putting on a second stage and letting people camp for the weekend. In the end Victoria Park was just too small for two stages and camping. So in August 1996 there was one day of artists in Victoria Park and two days at Hylands Park with camping. The northern leg of V97 was switched to Temple Newsam, Leeds to provide room for camping and three stages. In 1999 the Northern leg of the festival was moved to Weston Park in Staffordshire and has remained there since.

Previously it had been held at Temple Newsam in Leeds, before being replaced by Carling's Leeds Festival. Originally, the festival took the name of the current year, with the first festival being named "V96". Since 2003 it has been known as simply the V Festival. Its weekend format, low queuing times and professional organisation have given it a loyal audience. The festival sold out in record time in 2006.

Mel C, Dido, and N.E.R.D. have all performed at the festival, and both Razorlight and Faithless performed in 2006. V showcases a mix of British and international musicians, from up-and-coming bands such as Coldplay in 2000 and the Kaiser Chiefs in 2003 and 2008, and glam rockers El Presidente in 2005, to veteran crooner Tony Christie. Girls Aloud also performed at the 2006 show, and received rave reviews for their performance. McFly performed at the festival in 2007 and received a huge turnout and great reviews that were not expected.

V97 was the first V Festival to be webcast. This was audio-only, and had about 30,000 listeners over the weekend. V98 had the live audio stream, as well as selected video webcasts from the back-stage web-chat area. The webcast and web-chats were managed through Virgin.net.

The first V festival took place on Saturday August 17 and Sunday August 18, 1996, and had two stages and one tent.

V stage: Pulp, Paul Weller, Supergrass, The Charlatans, Cast, Lightning Seeds, Gary Numan, Shed Seven, Stereolab, Incognito, Jonathan Richman, The Mike Flowers Pops, Longpigs, Edge Park

2nd Stage: Elastica, Sleeper, Heavy Stereo, Menswear, Fluffy, The Cardigans, Super Furry Animals, The Wannadies, Denim, Kula Shaker, Gorkys Zygotic Mynci, Space, Tiger, Pusherman, Orbital