Start of V Festival hit by v.bad weather but the sun will come out

It wasn't quite a Glastonbury washout at the V Festival but as music fans arrived last night they were greeted by dark skies and showers.

However, despite the ominous signs, weather forecasters were promising sunshine for the remainder of the weekend at the festival's two sites.

The V festival takes place at Weston Park in Staffordshire and at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, with bands playing at both sites over the weekend.

Revellers in Chelmsford should enjoy top temperatures of 24C tomorrow, and the rest of the country should have sunshine this weekend, broken only by the occasional shower in the east.

Franz Ferdinand, Oasis and the Scissors Sisters are among the acts playing to more than 130,000 music fans. The Streets, Kaiser Chiefs, Joss Stone and The Prodigy will also join the line-up at the 10th annual event. Tony Christie will be performing following the success of his single "Is This The Way To Amarillo" earlier this year.

Meanwhile hi-tech facial recognition equipment is being used at Weston Park in a bid to ensure the safety of fans and weed out troublemakers. Police will use an intelligence database linked to CCTV cameras to scan the site and return facial matches.