Last week, two of our readers were made very happy when they discovered that after a little bit of creative work, they’d won a ticket to Bestival 2007.
One of the winners, Mike Osborne from up north in Porchfield, has been kind enough to share his experience of Bestival with us and here’s what he had to say.
I arrived on site early evening, and excitedly went off to find my pre-pitched tent (cheers Tim) and experience the warm fuzzy feeling that only standing at the top of the Bestival, looking out with beer in hand, across a sea of equally happy people can bring.
After getting lost in the campsite looking for said tent we cracked open another beer and relaxed. This was it. The beginnings of three days of letting go and having a damn good time.
Our first port of call was the legendary Bollywood bar to watch Giles Peterson and have a nice dance to his eclectic selection of infectiously smooth Latino jazz-funk grooves.
Giles was as good as ever and it soon hit home that we were finally at Bestival.
After general milling about we caught the last few songs of The Go! Team, who were back for their second Bestival outing and looked to be enjoying it.
Next up were the Chemical Brothers. I like their stuff and have seen them play on the telly, but never in person, and I was suitably impressed with their visuals and they played a good set of old and new, plus my favorite, Star Guitar.
Some people I heard didn’t enjoy them, but like I said, it was new to me and I enjoyed it, one to tell the grandchildren anyway.
Saturday saw us and thousands of others dress up (if they weren’t already) as anything and everything for the fancy dress parade. We put a musical twist on the pirate/marine-ish theme, and went dressed up as ‘The Groove Armada’ making wearable boats laced with party-popper canons which got us a second place in the group fancy dress competition (although we were the crowds choice for first, politics you see…).
Walking about dressed as 5 boats and having ‘sea battles’ with other pirate ships got interesting as the day wore on, but we decided in favor of disembarking in time for DJ Yoda. For those who haven’t heard any of DJ Yoda, the guy is a genius. In his set he flawlessly mixes T.V. themes, hip-hop, dance, scratching, film themes, cheesy pop, you name it, he plays it. This was one of my highlights of the weekend bouncing about like a loon and singing ‘living on a prayer’ as loud as possible along with about 1000 other people. Truly amazing.
The Beastie Boys were next, but I wasn’t too impressed, I was expecting a set full of their classic tracks, but they seemed to be interspersed with lots of punk stuff. I was on my own for this, so after “Three MCs and One DJ” I grabbed a pint and went to watch the last bit of Jack Penate and loved what little of it I heard. Just wish I had seen more.
No sign of any of my friends, so I headed over to Bollywood where we were to meet and saw the end of the Loose Cannons set and primed my spot for the Bollywood headliner, Radio 1’s Annie Mac. One word; Wow. I’ve seen Annie DJ at previous Bestivals. Last year her set was one of my highlights (on my own again). This year was amazing. Just pure class. The crowd were loving every second of it and after her impromptu crowd surf, were begging for one more. Unfortunately, the guy who calls the shots denied it and with lots of booing we dispersed back to the campsite.
What made it even greater and this applies to DJ Yoda, is they actually look like they want to be there, not just another booking at a festival, but an actual desire to be there and play the best they can. The crowd know it and love it, and this makes for an amazing atmosphere.
Sunday was a lazy day and we spent a lot of time walking about the site, checking out the Bestival and chilling. We listened again to DJ Yoda warming up for the Beastie Boys’ second set, but due to other factors I went up the hill and listened to the guys on the bandstand. Lots of
people all chilling in the sun, listening to a variety of interesting and odd things. I had lost my program so it was purely by chance that I made it in time to the House of Bamboo for Max Sedgly and the Shoots. Another good act that I was pleased to see, and naturally the crowd
loved it when “Happy” was played. After resting back at camp we took in the end of the Dub Pistols, then found ourselves in the Come Dancing tent watching cabaret.
This was pretty interesting, odd, strange, and at times extremely funny, the acts there weren’t Cirque du Soleil, and maybe not as polished as maybe one would expect, but the crowd were good, and there was enjoyable to watch some genuine talent.
We again found ourselves in the Bollywood bar and muscled our way inside to watch two female DJs (which we think were Queens of Noize) go nuts on the decks, producing a very energetic set which the crowd loved.
After that, was supposed to be a special guest, but as of writing, no-one yet knows who it was (we’ve heard second-hand that it was one of the Beastie Boys, but this hasn’t been confirmed – Ed), and considering what he was following, he played a very mellow set of deep house, which I’m afraid I got bored with after 15 minutes and went back to my tent to sleep.
All in all I had an amazing time, as I have come to expect from Bestival. The weather was amazing, the music was varied and different, everyone was happy, chilled out and experiencing the best festival about, which is why it’s called Bestival. [photos provided by Simon, Mike and our onsite photographer, Ben Haldenby]
