Not All Part of The Script

Today was our first day at the V Festival in Chelmsford. Despite my (Chris) aversion to "real" camping, we really are roughing it this time.

We arrived around lunchtime and after a bit of a trek found plenty of space at what we hope will be the quieter end of the campsite. The tent was soon up and we headed back into the main area of Hylands Park to see what the festival had to offer. Annie had treated us to access to a VIP area within the festival site with clean toilets a welcome benefit, be interesting to see if they stay that way all weekend.

Over to the main stage and we enjoyed Paloma Faith before an excellent set from Two Door Cinema Club. A brief lecture from a site security officer regarding my use of a "professional camera with detachable lenses" but no press pass meant my photography was subsequently kept low key! The Script (snapped quickly for a blip, sorry Mr Security) we’re up next and they put on a great show including a guest appearance from Labyrinth taking the part of will.i.am for "Hall of Fame". During the set we noticed that the group of spectators immediately in front of us were getting quite a lot of attention. When someone asked for a photo and a pair of sunglasses removed, we realised that one of the group was Luisa Zissman recent runner up in BBC TV series The Apprentice. At least one other member of the group was some kind of celeb (more photos were being requested and someone muttered something about Celebrity Big Brother) although we have no idea who he was. We stood back and observed but I was asked by the group to photograph them on a couple of their phones so duly obliged!

We completed the evening seeing a DJ set from ex-Swedish House Mafia's Steve Angelo with accompanying light show and pyrotechnics. This was chosen in preference to seeing Beyonce who was apparently late on stage and spent a lot of time making costume changes! I think we chose wisely and enjoyed some proper anthemic dance music action despite the rain coming on.

On returning to the campsite we were more than a little surprised to find our tent had miraculously moved 25 feet from where we set up (along with all the other tents we'd lined up with) although it took a few mouth wide open seconds to locate it. A fellow camper informed us that we'd all pitched in an area subsequently deemed to be the route for the fire service (despite site markings to the contrary). Thankfully, despite the minimum number of tent pegs being used the tent had been put back up without incident and everything was inside it and dry.