V2007, Weston Park

Sheffield’s favourite music son encouraged a damp but warm crowd during his JJB/Puma Arena session to jump up and down in a bid to make more steam. “It’s cheaper than using a dry ice machine,” joked the gangly singer whose quips remain better than his lurch-laced dancing.

The former Pulp man was the highest profile of a healthy Sheffield contingent that included a first on spot from The Dodgems, a modest but warm crowd for Tiny Dancers and a battle with the elements for The Hours as city frontman Ant Genn played the second outdoor stage.

As rain lashed rural Staffordshire arguably one of the strongest bills of the festival season sought to make 85,000 punters forget their watery worries, the likes of an in-form Manic Street Preachers among those acts vying to take some blame. Signing off their Eyes Open campaign a stirring Snow Patrol revealed it had rained at every one of their 20-plus festival dates.

By Sunday the most resilient were embracing the mud and mystery pools that replaced the grass, a fiery set from Jet prefaced by an impromptu mud-sliding contest out front.

With the chirpy Chelsea Dagger and Henrietta in their locker The Fratellis are an ideal festival band, though instead of sound-tracking lager-aided sunbathing sought to lift the spirits of thousands rained on from noon - especially those of us refused entry with golfing brollies!

Major rousing credit also goes to the joyous James (introduced by Peter Kay), a warming Cherry Ghost and the festival ever-present Foo Fighters, delivering an amiable acoustic show under the guise of 606 before storming main stage on Sunday night.

Rodrigo y Gabriela went one further, playing both sites twice, but on both days in a first for V. The vibrant Mexican acoustic duo earned star treatment as they were helicoptered between Weston Park and Essex to fill the shoes of cancelled Virgin Mobile Union Stage headliner Bright Eyes.

When all was said and done, though, it has to be said the more mature acts arguably ruled this year; the charismatic Ming-esque Tim Booth, Jarvis, Iggy and his Stooges, the Manics and, for many, Happy Mondays and The Proclaimers. McFly, Pink and a bizarrely-dressed Kanye West may disagree.

David Dunn