Here’s the next instalment of guest writer Jack Phoenix’s account of his time at Bestival 2006. His personal view.
. . another dream . . .
Bombom, a little known cousin of Babar, travels as a young, idealistic, Christian police elephant, to a remote island where the locals, ruled by a retired bank robber pachyderm, are in engaged in acts of lewdness & pagan sacrifice . . . on discovering this, Bombom is hauled off, trapped in a gigantic wicker elephant, & set on fire whilst the locals dance in frenzied joy & wave their trunks in the air, trumpeting & whooping . . .
. . . the closest i get to realizing this dream is sitting in one of Tim Johnson’s wicker igloos for a quiet lie down . . . fortunately no one sets it on fire . . . i get a chance to revive myself a little . . .
. . . i’m feeling good . . . as if an emotional shift has taken place . . . i stop to make my clay daemon with a friend & her young son . . very relaxing . . . in defiance of the ban on dressing up as clowns, there’s a particularly evil looking one nearby, merrily manufacturing a small clay penis as his doppelganger . . . he’s not the first or the last . . . by the end of the festival, there are clay phalli everywhere . . .
. . i’m determined to check out The Retreat today . . . sensibly, it’s at the opposite end of the site to the main stage & 24 hour area . . . strangely though, it’s been decided that even here we cannot be allowed any peace & quiet (not that you can’t still hear stuff from the other areas) . . . there’s a pyramid stage with experimental speakers in organic shapes . . & even in The Retreat itself, the music in the cafe tent is so bloody loud . . .
. . . of course it’s too late to book a massage or whatnot, & being an addict, i’d want it right now anyway. . i can’t really afford it either . . . so i settle for a bowl of organic muesli . . . i get little more than a thimble full at the bottom of a small plastic dish . . this seems exorbitant at three-quid-fifty, so – Oliver! style – i ask for, & am given, more . . . there’s a lovely view, but not the peace & quiet i’d hoped for . . & they seem to be selling spirituality as a lifestyle accessory to those that can afford to pay . . . i move on & return later to the more honest fare of Ollie’s veggie truck, where you can get a delicious & substantial curry for a fiver or so . . .
More later …
