Saturday review

Coldcut’s VJ set it our first port of call on Saturday afternoon, after a leisurely stroll around the beautiful Robin Hill adventure park, which sees us encounter people getting married in the festival’s inflatable church, getting lost in the large maze at the top of the hill, and playing around in the adventure playground.

But at 4.30 in the afternoon, it’s pretty hard to get truly involved with the hip-hop/drum’n’bass mish-mash. Not that it’s at all bad, just it’d go down way better at 4.30 in the morning instead.



Back out in the sun there’s rumours abound that Madness are to make a surprise appearance on the Main Stage at the climax of the festival’s yearly fancy dress parade. The rumours prove to be true and before long everyone’s kicking the nutty skank as Suggs and Co. appear to a rapturously received ‘One Step Beyond’. Madness may be the most uncool act on the whole bill this weekend, but then again the fact that they go down so incredibly illustrates how little a part being cool plays in this festival – it’s all about having fun, with pretence left at the entry gates.



Amazing Swedish pop star ‘Robyn’ is next over on the Big Top, keeping to the fancy dress theme by coming on stage with a giant model of Saturn on her head. She plays one of the best sets of the weekend, her electro-pop majesty getting everybody dancing. ‘Be Mine’ and ‘Handle Me’ are the picks of the bunch, although predictably recent Number 1 ‘With Every Heartbeat’ gets the biggest cheers.

She’s followed by Brazilian no-hopers Bonde Do Role who, after initially amusing this reviewer when he saw them play at 4 am in Barcelona, have gone on to pop up at almost every festival this summer and play the exact same, paper-thin set that soon starts to grate. Sampling The Darkness was funny the first time, but by now it’s clear that it is the extent of their talent. They’ll go away soon, I’m sure.

It’s for the evening’s headliners that the most reverence is reserved, as The Beastie Boys touch down on the Isle Of Wight after a lengthy world tour that’s seen them ignore the majority of Britain (London got a token show but that’s it). But for those that are on the Isle Of Wight to see them, they’re given a real treat – an awesome mix of hip hop classics like ‘Shake Your Rump’ and ‘Intergalactic’ alongside punk terror tunes ‘Egg Raid On Mojo’ and ‘Heart Attack Man’. People are dancing and jumping the whole way through, when it ends with ‘Sabotage’ people are crying out for more. Luckily, the Beasties are playing again tomorrow afternoon, so the crowd’s wishes are granted.



Finally, it’s over to the BBC Introducing stage to catch Patrick Wolf perform his pixie antics to a jubilant late night crowd. Having honed his festival show after a long season of tented performances, tonight is merely a re-affirmation of his greatness, as he plays all the best of his upbeat, festival-friendly material. Although, clearly he’s missing the chance to indulge his darker side, which might explain why he’s doing a solo winter tour without a backing band later this year.

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