Festivals hey! Been there done that not bought the heavily overpriced t-shirt. I thought I'd covered all the bases or at least enough of them to look back on and reminisce in twenty or thirty years time with what ever brain capacity I have left by then. One thing I had not done however was a V festival, something I always viewed as an overly commercial brand pushing beast but with arguably the finest musical line-up of the summer, this years two dayer proved too much of a temptation to resist.

Let's get one thing straight from the off... V is firmly about the music. If you go to festivals for the weirdness and odd ball antics then this is not the place for you. Pop, Rock, Indie and Dance were all covered in equal measures around the park.

After checking out the vast site on Friday evening and the mighty Norman Jay MBE at the Strongbow rooms we returned once again to the Cider HQ on Saturday as Liverpool DJ and producer Dash opened up the day's proceedings with his eclectic selection of hip hop, house and grooves.

The rain began to fall (for the only time of note across the weekend) as Pixie Lott opened the Main Stage entertaining a suspiciously large male presence in the process. Meanwhile back in Strongbow land, Manchester singer songwriter Gideon Conn was whipping up the crowd with material from his newly released long player 'New Bop Sounds'. And then... over at the Nissan Duke arena... things took a bizarre turn... as the crowds squeezed into whatever space they could find, none other than 'Dad of the year' Peter Andre took to the stage and thrilled the screaming crowds with some Michael Jackson and Police covers before the arm waving spectacle of 'Mysterious Girl' filled the arena. And yes I admit, between the laughter I was singing along too.

I never really got into the vibe at the Main Stage all weekend and this was no more obvious than during Paolo Nutini's set. Having picked him out as a must see, I felt he struggled to get things going with his late afternoon set and the dark clouds hanging overhead. Getting things going was not an issue for Calvin Harris however as over on the 4 Music stage as he banged out his crowd pleasers for at least one more time this summer. As the sun began to set the most underrated band in the country Doves held court with a sublime set with 'Black & White Town' and 'Pounding' the stand out songs.

Saturday's festival headliners Kasabian then took to the main stage. A band with all the confidence and swagger that says they know they're the best in the country, yet still they have a rapport with the crowd that some of their predecessors could only dream of. Frontman Tom Meighan knows he is there to entertain the punters, not stand around being all important, and by the time his arms were raised for the chorus of Empire, the band were already crowned as the Kings of Stafford. As you can imagine the encore of Fire, Vlad the Impaler and traditional set closer LSF destroyed Weston Park. Awesome!

Sunday lived up to its name as the blue sky added an extra treat as the mix of blearey eyes and bad hair appeared from the tents. What perfect accompaniment do you need on such a fine afternoon than the Divine Comedy of Neil Hannon. Spendidly dressed in a grey suit, bowler hat and holding a large glass of red wine Hannon dispensed chit chat and friendly snippets of advice between his songs adding a bit of class to the days proceedings.

Now I'd heard a lot about Paloma Faith and had foolishly missed her performance at Liverpool Sound City earlier this year so this was one performance I didn't want to miss out on again and what a decision that proved to be. Still recovering from partying a bit too hard after her Chelmsford performance the dramatic singer endeared herself to the crowd who were all feeling pretty much the same way. Paloma is a national treasure who was just loving every part of her performance and after the somewhat ironic 'Stone Cold Sober' she even found time to diss David Guetta who was due to to headline the stage later that evening, what a darlin'.

The goosepimple moment of the whole weekend had to be the sound of The Temper Trap's 'Sweet Disposition' floating across the site, while over at the Bacardi B-Bar Greg Wilson's salsa house sounded just right with a Mohito in hand.

Anticipation was high for the one of the UK biggest success stories of the last twelve months Ellie Goulding who had added to the healthy crowd who had just seen Swedish songstress Robyn rock the Nissan Juke tent. The hype surrounding 23 year old Goulding is massive at the moment and she didn't fail to disappoint with new single 'The Writer' and of course 'Starry Eyed' going down a storm. Ellie commented on her Twitter page afterwards that 'it was the best crowd I have played to in ages'.

Florence & the Machine packed the 4 music stage for one of their last performances before returning to the studio to record the follow up to 'Lungs' and as always the firey redhead gave her all with 'Dog Days Are Over' stealing all the thunder.

With regular appearances from the sunshine and firm ground underfoot, the atmosphere was superb throughout the weekend with possibly the most moody faces on show belonging to the four sons of Franklin, Tennessee who headlined the Weston Park main stage on Sunday night. After taking in the early part of the Kings of Leon set, we made a decision to finish the weekend off with a bit of a rave up and so were left with a choice: David Guetta who was somewhat unbelievably headlining the 4 Music stage but the covered Nissan Juke arena seemed the right place to be as we joined Groove Armada midway through a set of acid fuelled grooves which squeezed every last drop of energy from the crowd. The perfect 'Superstylin' finale

Credit has to go to the promoters, the festival was superbly organised, well staffed and the whole event appeared - from my slightly hazy point of view at least - to be pretty safe and secure. A real pleasurable experience from beginning to end.


Early bird tickets are already on sale for next years event for a limited time only, someone please tell Kevin!

www.liverpool-live.info