V Festival 2016 - Day 1

Now in its 21st year the weather might not have decided to celebrate this landmark occasion but there were plenty of good acts on offer.

The 80,000 plus attendance this year was still high with the festival deciding to keep this year's headliners, Rihanna and Justin Bieber, on a more pop footing.

Example had the hard task of getting the crowd warned up in a mid afternoon slot on the main stage: with Tracks such as Changed The Way You Kissed Me and Love Kicks along with the friendly banter from lead singer Elliott Gleave, it was a triumph.

Lucas Graham is best known for his big European hit 7 Years but there is a lot more depth to him than this year's big hit, most of his tracks seemed to be influenced by his dad passing away, though that's not to say the songs are downbeat, far from it, with a Bruno Mars touch, Graham was one of the unexpected surprises of the day.

Years and Years have had a resounding year after the big hit King, which they close their set with, their success means they can afford some dancers now who even replicate the video to King as they lift lead singer Olly Alexander above their heads. He says he is wearing shorts back to front but no one seemed to notice.

Little Mix have some big pop tracks with Butterfly and Black Magic even Craig David makes an appearance on stage to duet with the girls on his hit track, Bo Selecta.

Leeds' own Corinne Bailey Rae delivered a soulful set to a discerning audience, her band includes a brilliant drummer, she decides to treat us to a Bob Marley cover of Is This Love but it's her own tracks such as Paris Nights and New York Mornings where she really shines.

David Guetta maybe one of the biggest DJ's in the world but he still treats us to a surprise guest appearance of Bebe Rexha: basically it was a light and firework show it might have worked better in Ibiza rather than under the cloudy Staffordshire skies.

Saturday nights headliner Rihanna is late on stage as usual, mind you, its only 17 minutes tonight and not the 1 hour plus some fans on the current tour have had to wait.

Dressed for the weather she appears wearing a long coat with a hood although this is soon discarded. She seems to want to concentrate on performing tracks off her new album as he biggest hits like Umbrella and Rude Boy seem to get curtailed.