NOT V HAPPY

As people start to return home and fire up their computers, it seems not everyone had a good time at V, with grumbles about queues, safety and prices.

One festival-goer, Chris Ralph, from Exeter, told the BBC News website that buying a £10 programme was the only way to find out which bands were playing where and when.

"How do they get away with treating people like this?" he said.

V's response?

The V spokesperson said the charge was for a programme, laminate, and plastic rucksack.

"Previously, programmes and laminates were sold separately, at a greater price," she added.

That's slightly missing the point, isn't it? Apart from suggesting that getting a plastic bag sweetens the deal, making people fork out another tenner on the top of the ticket price does look awfully like the sort of profiteering that people would have been shot for during the war.

Other people complained about having their drinks taken off them:

Fans also reported having their own supplies of water being confiscated at the festival. They say they were charged £2 for bottles inside the site.

"The organisers should be a little less greedy," he said.

However, the V festival spokesperson said: "The only drinks security confiscate at the entrance to the arena is alcohol and tampered plastic bottles."

She added that water was available free of charge from standpipes and that people were encouraged to bring plastic bottles with them to refill.

But if alcohol is being sold freely inside, why should people not be allowed to take their own alcohol in to the site? There's absolutely no logic to that, other than that of the profiteer.

Burgers, by all accounts, cost seven quid. And we're guessing they weren't the sort Tom Archer sells from his quality van.

So, are V abashed?

A spokesperson added: " We will of course bear in mind [these] comments as we continue our planning for next year's festival.

"However, judging by the fact that phone lines have been inundated since tickets for V Festival 2007 went on sale this morning, it seems that the vast majority of the 150,000 attendees had a thoroughly good time."

But people buying tickets doesn't mean they're the people who went this year and had a brilliant time; indeed, you might wonder if V wasn't so keen to get the tickets for next year on sale before people had a chance to find out about the four-hour queues for cashpoints from the customers who went this year.

[Earlier: Girls Aloud V barrier crisis
V confirmed artists 2006
V2005]

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