British festivals typically mean lots of music, lots of camping and of course, generally lots of rain. Considering how “summery” the last few months had been, I was a little worried that this last weekend was going to be washed out because I was going along to Bestival 2007. We were all banking on good weather, taking Friday off to drive down to the three-day festival and Monday to have a bit more of a leisurely pace back to London.
It turned out that we had fantastic festival weather, and the entire Bestival experience was thoroughly enjoyable. Music highlights had to be The Chemical Brothers who put on their typically awesome act accompanied by a spectacular light show, the ever energetic The Gossip and then The Foals, a new Indie band who put out a great set in the BBC Introducing. On the disappointing side, The Beastie Boys who I’d seen perform a brilliant set back at Big Day Out, managed to cause the crowd to thin out quite well during their Saturday night set. We also caught the end of Carl Craig’s rather dull and low key set which didn’t seem to match the energetic mood everyone was in at 4 in the morning.
Although there were plenty of music acts, many of them were I didn’t rate on the “must see” list. The upside is that there wasn’t as much pressure to go to all the stages, and I could indulge in the company of other festival goers, chill out in the sun and just generally meander throughout the rest of the festival. There’s plenty of alternative entertainment, including glitter wrestling, an inflatable castle with almost hourly marriage services (Ben and Polly’s one on Sunday was a stunner), a burlesque tea tent, a comedy tent and just plenty of places to lounge around and soak up the atmosphere.
Another big draw card, quite unique to this festival is it’s fancy dress theme. Even though it’s based on a poem, all of it is optional, and so here’s what I went as. It was amazing at how much some people really got into their costumes, with many of them hand crafted to superb detail, especially those that co-ordinated an entire group costume.
It was a great taste of what British festivals should be like when it’s not raining and full of mud and could definitely go back another year.
did anyone see MAN-MACHINE at the house of bamboo 10.45 wow guys thank you very much u stole the show hat off too ya wat a light show too goto catch u again ,way to go lads best act of the bestival
WE SAW MAN-MACHINE, WENT TO GET READY TO SEE THE ORB ARRIVED EARLY SO GLAD WE DID, MANAGED TO CATCH THE LAST 10 MINS OF WHAT I CAN ONLY DESCRIBE AS SHEER MAGIC , WAT A SHOW ,GOTA WATCH THE WHOLE THING NEXT TIME ,NEVER SEEN A LIGHT SHOW LIKE THAT ,SWEET , ALSO KATIE NASH RULES AND BESTIE BOYS U GUYS R TO OLD
gossip rule ,yes the boys r to old ,lol, and yes give me more Kraftwerk tribute act MAN-MACHINE danny u so right they kiked ass ,gotta see that again do they have website???, any one help ,and a big shout out to sharron at club da da
besties were the greatest as ever ,gossip suk,saw the kraftwerk thing it looked shit hot but not my type of music but i did gaze at it before the mighty orb ,who were the stars of bestival 4 me
madness all the way , what a surprise didnt see kraftwerk thing gutted sounds good
MADNESS RULE
gossip rocked the house down ,the orb rocked ….
maddness were the gods ,big shout out to the chemical brothers u were brill ,bestie boys were cool ,i thought the whole ting was brill i go every year ,the best new band was the man-machine thing oh wat joy , the laser show was incredible wow got to see em next time
maddness were the gods ,big shout out to the chemical brothers u were brill ,bestie boys were cool ,i thought the whole ting was brill i go every year ,the best new band was the man-machine thing they were not there last year ,oh wat joy , the laser show was incredible wow got to see em next time i can see why there is a lot of buzz about them ……thank u rob d bank