Tens of thousands of festival-goers made their way to Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight at the end of last week to join in celebrations for the tenth anniversary of Bestival.
Voted in the UK Festival Awards as Best Major Festival for 2012, the tenth anniversary party had a mixed bag of weather over the weekend, but the smiles of festival-goers continued throughout.
Fantastic performances
We saw some great performances from the likes of the legendary Johnny Marr; were transported back 20+ years with the beautiful Belle and Sebastian; enjoyed late night poetry from the brilliant John Cooper Clarke and soaked up local music with performances from Champs, Plastic Mermaids and Paul Armfield to name but a few.
Once again the site was dressed with those little touches that sets Bestival apart from some of the other festivals.
Creative stages
This year the tents usually found near the toboggan run had been replaced by a ship (yes, a real one) with dancers and DJs performing from the top decks.
Once again the Swamp Shack made a return to the Wishing Tree field. Built by the same company that designs and builds film sets, this hill-billy shack, dressed to perfection, staged performances from the likes of beat boxing champion Reeps One and Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer to The Correspondents and the Billy Bones Band.
Drop in numbers?
Many people commented to us they thought there were less festival-goers than in 2012, but this was welcomed, with them adding that it made the site feel less cramped and less hectic.
Created way back in 2004 the first few Bestival-goers were just in their thousands, but Bestival organisers announced in the middle of last week that the 2013 festival had sold out. Readers will remember that they’d previously said tickets sales would be capped at 55,000.
Dipped in and out
Having had bad experiences at Bestival previously, we chose not to camp on site, instead opting to pop in and out of the Bestival site over the four days.
We had a great time this year and expect the majority of those attending felt exactly the same.
How about you? Why not share your best bits with readers?
Photo gallery
If you didn’t go and are interested in seeing the delights that were on offer, have a flick through the galleries below (click on the first image to see the larger version, use the right arrow to go through pics at your own pace or click on the Play button to watch as a slideshow).
If you did go, see whether you can spot yourself!
Images:
Victor Frankowski
Ian Taylor
Carolina Faruolo
Dan Dennison
