V Festival 2016 has only just wrapped up, but eager-beavers among the festival community have the opportunity to get a jump start on next year by picking up pre-sale tickets for V 2017. You can now snag a ticket with a tempting £42 discount off the full price, so now is a good time to act if you’ve already picked up a 2017 calendar and written in V fest for Aug 19th to Aug 2nd.
If this year’s event is anything to go by, that won’t be money wasted. V has always been able to combine the tastes of pop-loving crowds with plenty of veteran rockers, and this year was no exception.
Rihanna seems to have unanimously won out among festival-goers. Despite arriving more than half an hour late, she made up for things by delivering a searing set that began with new pop-ballad Stay before covering select tracks from her career. We even got a rendition of Umbrella accompanied by a downfall of rain.
Anyone who found Rihanna a little too mainstream will have had little cause for complaint after checking out Sia. She actually performed her own take on Diamonds, a hit that she herself penned for the Barbadian songstress. Bringing a sense of theatricality you might associate with an artist such as Björk, Sia’s whole set was performed from behind a face-obscuring wig, with dancers providing abstract interpretations and using old-fashioned telephones for props. It might sound a little mad, and it was a little mad, but it worked, and we appreciated a break from the commercial singers that many music-lovers have criticised V for in the past.
Another surprise highlight was Rick Astley. He also gave some Rihanna a whirl with a shockingly good cover of We Found Love, plus plenty of the expected hits for true-blue fans to enjoy, and we’ve rarely seen someone enjoy themselves quite so much on the stage. Other standout acts included Jodie Abacus on MTV Stage with a stirring soul set and the girls from X Factor’s Little Mix. Bastille, often hit-and-miss when it comes to performing live, rocked the mainstage while the whole field chanted their songs back to them.
Gutted you missed out? Longing to relive the memories? Make sure you snatch up one of the limited pre-sale tickets to secure a spot for next year’s event while saving yourself a bit of cash in the process.