V-Dub Island offers a nicely chilled alternative

You read a lot at the moment about how the amount of festivals have reached breaking point and any new ones are bound to fail. However no-one seems to have told the residents of the Isle of Wight this fact (or maybe the Isle of Wight's reputation as being several years behind the times means that it wont reach this capacity for several years yet). This year has seen the arrival of at least three new festivals, with an application in for at least one new event next year. One of these is V-Dub Island, part music festival, and part meeting point for lovers of Volkswagens, of all types, but particularly the Beetle and Camper.

Arriving on site on the Saturday, the thing that struck us most was the marked lack of Volkswagens on the site. This we were informed was due to a combination of a 'drive-out' and a surfing competition taking place on one of the local beaches. Seeing as there were no cars to look over, we took the chance to look round the site. On the music side of things, there were three stages, the main marquee tent, a dance tent offering DJs playing all weekend, and one other stage on one end of the VW show area which, whenever we passed, only seemed to have one band playing all day – a family group performing cover versions. This festival has been promoting itself as a family-run event and for the younger ones there was an inflatable slide, mini golf, Inflatable water balls, an activity area and a sand pit – all barring the last one carried a charge per go and repeated visits by your kids to these diversions could see your wallets emptied pretty fast. Food and drink options were limited, but for a small festival this isn't necessarily a problem, the bar was well stocked with draught lager, cider and a beer brewed especially for the event, all sold at pub prices, while for those who weren't drinking, a café tent offered hot and cold drinks. This tent was also the only source of food on the site, offering burgers, baked potatoes and pies. The quality of the food was ok, but it would have been good to see a few more food stores, as over the three days the festival ran, you would have got bored of the limited options fairly quickly.

Having collected refreshment at the bar we headed over to the main marquee, to see what music was on offer. First up was Sarah Firey, whose obvious nervousness showed through. Musically she reminded me of Laura Marling, with a gentle clear voice well suited to the laid back, acoustic folk she was performing. A little work on her stage presence could see her go far.

Next up was Rachel's Reason whose gentle pop/soul melodies sat nicely with the relaxed mood an afternoon sitting in the sunshine in a field engenders. They were followed by Dr Jones and the Blunt Instruments - one of the stalwarts of the Isle of Wight's music scene. Lead singer Duncan Jones has an easy voice to listen to and although more energetic and funky than Rachel's Reason they still erred on the laid back side of things.

The exchange between these two bands was speeded up by the fact that they mostly shared the same members. This was also the case with the next band of the afternoon – The Weatherkings. That was where the similarity ended however, as the music took a decidedly upbeat turn – no mean feat when you consider that the keyboard, guitarist and drummer were now entering their third hour on stage. The bands energetic rock errs on the tongue in cheek side of things with songs about the local ferry services, or bumblebees in their ears. This however is not a bad thing, and we see the tent starting to fill with people in response.

Sadly we miss the next couple of acts as the lack of food options on site force us to leave in search of sustenance, but when we return we see a site transformed – with the return of the VW owners on the drive-out and the surfers the festival seems to have taken off, and what was a sleepy little festival is now a hive of activity buzzing round the main marquee and bar, where local rappers Born In A Barn were obviously in their element playing reggae inspired hip-hop to an energetic crowd. They might have had a larger crowd but for the limits of the marquee which had filled to capacity, despite leaving a sizeable number of people outside.

This problem was even more pronounced for the headline act Dub Pistols, where the limitations of the venue were shown. The lack of a barrier, which earlier in the day meant the venue felt intimate, now caused problems with stage invasions, almost losing several members of the band into the audience as well as intermittent blackouts on the lighting rig. Fortunately Dub Pistols are a band who seem to feed off rowdy audiences, and were in their element, giving one of the most energetic performances I've seen them give.

In between these two acts, there was an interesting mix of a magician, Huxley, and a burlesque act – featuring the Trinity Belles, among others, it seemed a bit odd to have them sandwiched between two music performers, as together they felt more of a late-night post-music show rather than being on mid-evening. But I'm sure most of the males in the audience weren't complaining too much.



The following day followed a similar formula to the first, with the early afternoon offering a chance to relax in the sunshine, although the lack of a drive-out meant that we finally had a chance to look round the cars and campers that are the focus of the festival. Camper owners take a lot of pride in their vehicles and it's interesting to see the different way they expressed this – from campers that were prized for being entirely original and untouched, to others that were themed in a sort of campervan fancy dress of fire engines, pimp wagons and off-roaders. On a sunny afternoon in this relaxed atmosphere it was easy to see the appeal of these vehicles, and very tempting to consider one as an alternative to the tent at future festivals.

Back at the main marquee, Vanzatti were busy waking up the drowsy and slightly hung-over audience with some heavy rock. They were followed by Keri Highland, whose heavy piano work and soaring vocals bought to mind Tori Amos.

After deciding to leave the site in search of food, we returned to catch the end of the reggae act The Ohmz set, and a far sparser crowd than the night before – due in the main to the steady stream of people leaving the site during the day, which was a shame because they missed one of the highlights of the weekend. Ska'd for Life are a local Isle of Wight act who, although on the surface are a covers band, they play a good mix of ska, and in amongst the many Madness, Specials and two-tone era songs, also take time to do justice to Toots and the Maytals and Prince Buster originals too.

A festival is a difficult thing to get right, and V-Dub Island is a long way from perfect – it needs a better selection of food on offer, and the toilets definitely need some attention as they were too few, and most of them weren't particularly pleasant quite early on in the festival. A larger main tent would help, as although the festival enjoyed good weather all weekend, a wet festival might not be anywhere as enjoyable. But these are minor niggles and things that can be corrected for the future. The most important thing at a festival is the atmosphere, and this is something that this festival had managed to get just right – it aimed to be a relaxing, friendly festival that made it's attendees, whatever their age, feel welcome. And by and large it hit this on the nail. If you're looking for a small, cheap festival where you can just relax and enjoy the atmosphere then you could do a lot worse than to look at this one next year.

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