Bestival Review 2009

Bestival, as the name suggests is the BEST festival ever. (Well, the best one I have been to anyway.) Let me tell you why...(please don’t be deterred by the negativity of the first paragraph. I can assure you that paragraphs following this make up for it 10 fold.)

We arrived in Porstmouth (the south of England) after a grueling train ride from Waterloo to find a huge line to board the ferry to the Isle of Wight. It was well worth the wait, once on the ferry, we could see the whole of Portsmouth Harbour. Upon arrival at Ryde (a town on the Isle of Wight) we had to wait in another line for about 2 hours to catch a bus into the festival grounds. When you are carrying three days worth of clothes, food and a tent, you don’t want to be standing in a line for 2 hours, let alone four, so we were, along with everyone else very frustrated by now.

It all seemed worth it as we got to the festival grounds. Bestival is set at a place called Robin Hill Country Park. Basically, it’s this HUGE Park with a hedge maze, farm animals and some other rural stuff. It’s surrounded by rolling hills and beautiful green grass; the perfect place for a festival. We managed to sneak in our bottle of vodka past security even though they were checking everyone’s bags. I don’t quite know how we did it. A short trudge down to the campsite and we set up our tent. It was imperative that we made sure exactly where we were camping. When you have 40,000 people camping in one spot for three days, you can get lost in a sea of tents. (I can only imagine how crazy it will be at Glastonbury.) The sun was shining, so we ventured out to check out the festival grounds.

Bestival had so many art installations, sculptures and stuff to see. There are huge flags everywhere, weird tents with mirrors all over the walls, circus tents, people in costume and even a random piano, just in the middle of a field for anyone to play. Every year they have a theme. This year it was Space, so as a consequence, there were big sculptures of rockets and aliens at every turn. All this stuff and the festival hadn’t even started.

The Thursday night in one of the big tents they played the movie ‘This is Spinal Tap’ on the big screen followed by a performance by The Cuban Brothers. If you’ve never heard of the Cuban Brothers before just think of some trashy South Americans trying to do Hip Hop and break dancing. It was hilarious.

DAY 1:

Friday morning and the first official day of the festival saw us wake up to a breakfast of fresh bacon and eggs. We also picked up a free festival newspaper. Yes that’s right, the festival puts out its own newspaper every morning for punters.

There were three really awesome bands in a row on mainstage. Passion Pit, Friendly Fires and Florence and The Machine. We managed to get a spot right near the front of the stage to watch them and made some really awesome friends in the process. Our new found friends, Fay, Amanda, Clare and Amy took us under their wings and we hung out with them for the rest of the festival. We have made lifelong friends through them.

Passion Pit, Friendly Fires and Florence and the Machine were all equally as good as each other. Fiery red headed Florence took to the stage sporting a hot green and silver space suit for her performance with some wicked high heels to match.

A short trip back to our campsite to get warm clothes at dusk was followed by a short viewing of MGMT’s set and a dance off at the RIZLA dance tent. The headliners of Friday Massive Attack then played a surprisingly dodgy performance. Maybe it was where we were standing relative to the stage but their set just didn’t do it for me.

Just before bed and a lullaby from Bat For Lashes in the Big Top tent proved to be just what we all needed.

DAY 2:

We woke up to another beautiful clear and surprisingly warm day. Saturday at Bestival is dress up day. Bestival is well known for its fancy dress themed days. In 2005, an attempt was made to set the Guinness World Record for most people in fancy dress at any one event. Literally every second person had a costume on. Some people had spent hours, maybe days making their costumes. (For pictures of some of them see my Facebook photos.) Our first act of the day was Lily Allen. She came out wearing a Barbarella costume. Her set was pretty much a duplicate of what I saw when she came to Australia a few months back. Nonetheless, it was a stellar performance. The only problem was that all the sound kept shorting out on the main stage.
Next up we witnessed the finesse of the one and only Seasick Steve. Having been taught guitar by a local mechanic, Seasick left his Oakland, California home aged 13, drifting around the States doing odd jobs and living the life of a real hard-lucked bluesman. His experiences over that time inform the ruggedly infectious music he makes today. He is almost 70 years old and His set was out of this world. For one of his songs called Diddley Bow he played a one stringed string instrument with a screwdriver as a slide. He is a real ‘Song a dance man’.
Kraftwerk headlined the main stage that night with their trademark visuals and onstage layout of four men standing in front of synthesizers. It was a historical moment as ‘the Beatles of electronic music’ played their hits like Autobahn and Man or Machine. A lot of the younger kids weren’t really that impressed at the technicalities of the German foursome’s tunes. I guess they just don’t understand that the music they were hearing was made about 35 years ago and laid the groundwork for pretty much every dance song they hear today.
Later on we attempted to enter the Big Top for a late night set from La Roux. This proved to be a little difficult as the tent was overflowing with a sea of bodies. We ended up reluctantly watching from outside whilst looking longingly into the tent.

DAY 3:
By the time you reach day three of a three day festival without a shower, things start to get a little bit smelly. Lucky we had our trusty pack of baby wipes. We ventured down to the Christian Church tent for some free porridge and herbal tea that they were handing out which proved to be a money saver and rather yummy.
Our first port of call was a set by a fantastic up and comer Speech Debelle. She is from South London and has just won the Mercury Prize (A very prestigious music award in the UK.) Her folky English Hip Hop proved a real treat.
Next we managed to get front row for American indie lads Hockey. Their tune ‘Too Much Soul’ went off and we later met them in person in the mosh at mainstage. Definitely a band to watch.
On a little stage tucked into the trees of the festival we saw Luke Pritchard from the Kooks do an acoustic set. He ended up bringing two of his band members with him but it wasn't on the program as 'The Kooks' so not many people knew about it. His set was absolutely fantastic and a lot of his family and friends were there to watch as the festival is not far from his hometown of Brighton.
As my friend Justin puts it, ‘The alternative version of Coldplay’, The Doves were on main stage in the afternoon. Their soft, driving rock was a smooth way to wind down after a weekend of party.
Just when we thought we couldn’t get anymore cruiser, the Fleet Foxes took to the stage. Their impeccable harmonies and beautiful melodies put the whole crowd into a trance. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.
I would recommend Bestival to anyone who wants to go to a festival overseas. It is different to any festival I have ever been to and so much better than any event I could ever dream of creating. If you haven’t started saving money already, then start. Just like me, YOU, could have the time of your life.