Bestival – Isle of White – 07/09/07-09/09/07
Bestival has successfully carved out a special niche for itself over the past few years; halfway between a village fete and a children’s birthday party, the last festival of the summer isn’t called Bestival for nothing. But having grown in capacity to 30,000 punters, would it be able to maintain the feel of a boutique festival?
Easily! With giant scrabble on sticks (frequently used to spell out the main stage band names and, mystifyingly, the phrase ‘QUEERS VAGINA’), a human jukebox and the Isle of Wight Women’s Institute running a tea and cake tent, the Bestival won’t be anywhere near approaching ‘normal’ for quite some time.
The headline bands aren’t really the point of festivals like this and, as if to prove the point, they were largely disappointing. No matter how many times Mike D tried to rename the Isle of Wight after himself (“It’s the Isle of Mike y’all!”), the Beastie Boys never quite hit their gonzo hip-hop best, and, bizarrely, there was no ‘(You gotta) Fight for your right (to party)’. Sunday headliners Primal Scream’s set also looked likely to be vaguely disappointing until a clearly battered Suggs wandered onstage and declared them “the best fucking rock ‘n’ roll band in the world!” After his little pep-talk they nearly lived up to the hype, interspersing their early ‘90s indie rave classics from Screamadelica with later hits such as ‘Swastika Eyes’ and ‘Rocks’.
Away from the festival’s main stage, bands such as the Bobby McGees played bitterly twee indiepop songs about not going out with Audrey Tatou, while Bishi demonstrated amply that English singer-songwriterliness, electronica and Indian classical music go together like pear cider and music festivals.
The best performance of the weekend, however, came from The Go! Team on Friday evening. Despite having earlier been involved in a motorway accident, they showed everyone, especially the Beastie Boys, how to get a festival crowd to the perfect pitch of sun-drenched euphoria.
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Hi,
Who are the headliners for this years Bestival and are the tickets on sale yet?
http://www.bestival.net – Amy Winehouse, Underworld and My Bloody Valentine top the bill, Aphex Twin, CSS and King Creosote other notables. The only place you can now get tickets is from the Whitelink or Red Funnel ferries websites – they sell ferry/festival tickets combined.