Arm's Rant #1: V Fest

Ok, lets face it; we are currently in the midst of what can be described as a festival boom culture. There's simply never been as many. Every year another one is hatched, in some place you’ve never heard of, with a title using a word that you may not have thought existed. So all in all this is good news, right? Well, yes and no… without the interest there’d never be so many festivals around, so with more people interested in seeing live music, this can only be a good thing, surely? The trouble is that the live music itself has become a sort of secondary consideration. The bigger festivals such as Glastonbury, Isle of Wight and the Carling Weekend sell out within minutes of tickets going on sale. This is even without punters giving a moment’s thought to who’ll actually be playing.

This leads me on to the latest upcoming major festival, V Festival, which starts this Saturday. Virgin Festival recently launched in America (see here), and by all accounts was received with warmth across the pond. So why was this? Well, to my shock and amazement the line-up was actually quite good. Surprising for a festival who’s brand is synonymous with MOR and Dad Rock. The likes of TV On The Radio (pictured), LCD Soundsystem, Booka Shade, Peter, Bjorn and John, Modest Mouse and The Beastie Boys all played on the Saturday, which was headlined by newly reformed The Police.

The Sunday featured Dan Deacon in the Dance Tent, Interpol, MIA, Spoon, Explosions In The Sky, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Smashing Pumpkins and the Wu-Tang Clan. So I’m left scratching my head thinking ‘this is not the V Fest that I’ve become accustomed to… where’s the safe, bland indie rock… in fact, where’s Snow Patrol?’ A quick glance at this weekend’s V Fest answers these questions, and rest assured, normal service has been resumed. The British V Fest and its American counterpart may share the same name, but they are poles apart in their respective line-ups.

Paulo Nutini, The Fray, KT Tunstall, Kasabian, Mika, Jet, Pink and resident house band Snow Patrol are all featured this weekend. Other lowlights include Damien Rice piping Iggy and the Stooges to headline the JJB/Puma Arena and Bright Eyes headlining the ‘Virgin Mobile Union’ stage. An act, which sees the once, loved Conor Oberst, laying down his Jedi light sabre and officially turning to the dark side. It all makes for depressing reading for music lovers, as this could be, for a festival that considers itself a fairly credible live event, the worst line up for a big name festival in living memory. The website invites you to view the ‘line-up at a glance’… “glance” being the operative word before you start to realise “hang on, am I being short changed?”

Even Amy Winehouse, British music’s current 'jewel in the crown', played the Baltimore V as we get palmed off with the likes of The Goo Goo Dolls?! Only added to the bill for that Iris song which will be belted out by hundreds of drunken, balding men, possibly in jester hats, at this weekend’s event. A free ticket, to witness this, or the option of receiving unnecessary root canal dental work, would be a choice literally too close to call.

So why is the line-up so rubbish then? Well, it’s not up to me to answer that. The bigwigs at Virgin are the ones accountable, as it is they who have the insight into how it all works. For they know, as well as I, that the whole thing is highly lucrative. The demand is huge, so whoever plays sadly becomes irrelevant. The majority of these types of festivalgoers are there for the event and not the music. They go to tell their friends, to post pictures on their myspace and to get blind drunk on overpriced alcohol. No doubt, once it’s all over, they will reapply for next year’s experience when headliners include Color Me Badd, The Krankies and The Real Milli Vanilli.