Inside the bakery

Thanks to Nick at Virgin for sorting these pics out. A few shots on the ground from the Weston site…

Sadly we can’t do a lot about the weather but there’s a good crowd not letting the mud get to them - and right now it’s stopped raining. The forecast for tomorrow is actually not that bad either…

A pit’s eye view
One of the main jobs we do here is running the press office for the V Festival. This involves helping journalists with their various inquiries and within this, one part of it is what is known as the pit run.

This involves escorting photographers into the no mans land between the crowd and stage to take shots of the band. It also means we get the perk of being right up front to see the band. Sadly the photographers are only allowed in for three songs so we have to leave after this.

But having just got back from doing a pit run for The Cribs, it’s definitely a plus point for working here… well that and sleeping in a hotel at the end of the day

Surprisingly we’re not the only ones covering the festival this weekend, so I just thought I’d give a quick shout out to the others reporting live from a muddy field.The NME of course is here and reporting the festival from its own dedicated page on its website. Other music websites are here too, and Strange Glue is also reporting from here, and XFM (who are currently camped out in our press office) are also reporting live on the web from this green corner of Shropshire.

It’s not just the pros though. One enterprising punter has his own mobile blog live from the campsite and Flickr has photos from the festival already up. This is a nice photo stream illuminating one of the first funny stories of the festival. After losing a bet with Virgin Radio DJ Chris O’Connell over who could drink the most pints in a weekend Madness singer Suggs. Apparently, Suggs was so confident of victory that he bet his Rolls Royce over his victory. Well, as these pictures testify, he lost and a Keith Moon moment was recreated.

As far as moments in the music calendar go one of the biggest is the
highly successful V Festival now in its 12th year!

This year’s show will be headlined by The Killers, Foo Fighters and
Snow Patrol. Now if that isn’t reason enough to book tickets now what is?

Also announced today are: Festival favourites Kasabian, party starter
Pink, indie rockers James, legendary dance duo Basement Jaxx and Brighton pop
entities The Kooks. Plus, BRIT award winner Amy Winehouse, Welsh group
Manic Street Preachers, British Breakthrough Act BRIT winners The Fratellis,
2007 Godlike Genius NME award holders Primal Scream and mesmerising singer
songwriter Damien Rice. Also, Britrock outfit Babyshambles, alternative
Manchester group, Happy Mondays, Scottish hit Paolo Nutini, indie four
piece Editors and Grammy nominated KT Tunstall. Finally, chart topper Mika,
soulful solo artist James Morrison, dance floor queen Sophie Ellis
Bextor, US digital sensations The Fray, celebrated return act The Proclaimers
and last but by no means least, platinum selling act The Goo Goo Dolls. In
other words a who’s who of hit music acts!

As usual the festival will take place at Hylands Park, Chelmsford and
Weston Park, Stafford, in August. To be part of the summer’s hottest music
festival, get your hands on tickets as soon as they go on sale ­9am
Thursday 1st March 2007. For further ticket info check out: http://www.vfestival.com.