Bestival 2011

[HurrahBrother]

Chaos getting in on Thursday, lots of thefts.

Edited September 12, 2011 by HurrahBrother

[5co77ie]

Bjork's set was a 'marmite' affair - she played what i presume was 'Biophilia' in it's entirety, with no big screens for most of the set - there wasn't one song that was a 'singalong number'. It felt very disconnected. The highlight was a Chinese lantern almost hitting Bjork. The crowd at the front seemed quite moved - some were in tears - although I think that was because they wanted to leave.

Nice festival has a lot of other stuff alongside the music to enjoy. Definitely a generation gap, which was nice as it meant the acts i wanted to see weren't rammed, and i could hear them rather than the chatterers. Only real rain was Saturday. Thursday and Friday night were lovely and warm. I think it started to rain after the fireworks - but we were already on our way home after them.

Agree with the prices being high for a can of that cider that makes you want to wee a lot - so the toilet queues were long. Drink searches only took place on Thursday and Sunday so not so bad, and Block9's Swamp Shack was great - even better that it had a 'hidden' more sensibly priced bar doing real ale and scrumpy.

[thetime]

Bjork's set was a 'marmite' affair - she played what i presume was 'Biophilia' in it's entirety, with no big screens for most of the set - there wasn't one song that was a 'singalong number'. It felt very disconnected. The highlight was a Chinese lantern almost hitting Bjork. The crowd at the front seemed quite moved - some were in tears - although I think that was because they wanted to leave.

[Joe-]

Best weekend ever! Bjork was fucking brilliant!

Other highlights include Primal Scream, Boys Noize, A-Trak, Fatboy Slim, Diplo, Crystal Fighters and Maccabees.

Edit: The Cure didn't let me down, more like I didn't know most of the songs. My bad!

Edited September 12, 2011 by Joe-

[kaosmark2]

I had a great time. Mates dicked me over by not answering their phones (and thus no idea if they'd reserved the camp space for me), but got chatting to a load of cool people.

While the price/selection of beer was dreadful (and the ale was very clearly off), I didn't find they were too fussed about searching you upon entering the arena. I brought quite a few cans in from the site with no trouble.

The sheer amount of entertainment on offer was almost overwhelming. There was just so much to do, including just chilling out. I thought the atmosphere was fantastic pretty much everywhere, I could have spent the whole time without seeing a band I knew and would still have enjoyed myself immensely.

Musically, I missed far too many bands, mostly because of clashes, and the fact that I gipped off just before the end of Bjork's set on the Sunday to stay with a friend on the island rather than hope the predicted hurricane wasn't too bad. I thought the Cure were absolutely immense. Stunningly good show, although a lot of the people I was camping near seemed really critical which confused me. Chromeo were easily the second best band I saw on the mainstage all weekend, so lively. Mogwai would have been my band of the weekend if not for the Cure, absolutely breathtaking show on the Friday night, with a very nicely different set to the one I saw them play in Bristol a few months ago. Primal Scream were excellent, although I can't remember much after the first 4 or 5 songs of it.... I'm pretty sure I saw an impressive Metronomy set afterwards, but I'm not completely sure of that...

The end of the festival was pretty disappointing for me, I agreed to leave after Bjork instead of watching DJ Shadow and/or any of the dozens of bands I wanted to see at the same time or immediately afterwards, which left a lot I'd hoped to watch that I missed, but fuck me that show from Bjork was dire. I really like her albums, got all of them except Biophilia and a few of the live CDs, but on that base, I doubt I'll be adding any more. I knew she was doing a themed stage show based around the Biophilia concepts, and could just about put up with the 40-minutes or so of that at the beginning. But songs I loved became 10 minute dirges, thematics and concepts didn't even approach entertainment, that was just pretentious artistry for the sake of it. 4 or 5 songs into the non-Biophilia songs, took around 40 minutes without a single bit that impressed me beyond a couple of brief stage effects. One of the things I admire most about Bjork is the range of styles she's capable of encompassing while still retaining an overall theme, something that I've found very apparent in all her albums up until now, but that set lacked any variety. There were a few moments where the choir started to pick up a soaring harmony behind the dark, minimalistic forefront, but they were very brief moments, rather than extending and bringing in another aspect into the show. I saw potential, I saw hints of something impressive, something that might have justified the arrogant speech at the beginning about incorporating nature, music and technology into one show, but I didn't see it pulled off. That didn't just fail to entertain, that failed to hold my interest and curiousity.

[Kowalski]

That was my first Bestival and thought it was brilliant, probably the best festival I've been to. I found it a lot more manageable compared to Glastonbury - there was heaps of stuff to do in the small hours but without the queues and massive crowds flocking to everything at Glastonbury.

Had no problems getting in on Thursday (10am ish) - they seemed to open early.

Only downside for me was the price of drink, it's really expensive. I didn't drink any cans from the bars (I was mainly on the Bestivale) but I can't see how they can justify £4 for a can, that's outrageous. I think that's the most money I've ever spent at a festival which is disappointing.

Musical highlights: Primal Scream (amazing light show!), Crystal Castles, Public Enemy, Hercules & Love Affair were the top of the pile for me. The Cure were also good but I felt the 2.5 hours was a tad long for a festival headliner as it was clearly a set for the purists. Kelis surprised me as I only went along to see her cleavage! GLC were a good laugh.

Musical disappointments: Bjork (ridiculously self indulgent nonsense for a festival headliner - and I like quite a few of her songs), Cut Copy (I expected more perhaps because I had very high expectations), Sneaky Sound System (a poor shadow of what they were at Rockness a couple of years ago - I was kicking myself for not going to see ADF instead!).

Other highlights: Some great food, lovely atmosphere, so many nice people, the blue campsite, Sailor Jerrys (how strong were their Mojitos!), the fancy dress outfits (some brilliant efforts which added so much to Saturday), Swamp Shack, the area near the bandstand (just wonderful), cocktails, Bestivale, Comedy tent, Wall of Death (lunatics).

Edited September 12, 2011 by Kowalski

[kaosmark2]

The Cure were also good but I felt the 2.5 hours was a tad long for a festival headliner as it was clearly a set for the purists.

[BlackHole2006]

A fantastic weekend and a great festival with a friendly and up for it atmosphere on equal measure, only one really bad thing happened this weekend and that was on the friday morning when I woke up with a banging headache, searched around my tent and found that I lost my wallet. It wasn't in the tent, and it wasn't in lost property. And it had around £200 in it and my I.D. Completely devistated, went to lost property but it wasn't there. Only had 20 quid to live off the whole weekend. Luckily that was sorted out on the Sunday and getting home was no trouble.

Highlights were Bjork, Cuban Brothers, PJ Harvey, Graham Coxon, Mogwai and this hillarious comedian on the Sunday afternoon who was just brilliant. Didn't really watch too many bands and missed out on Primal Scream which was a bit shit. All in all a great relaxing weekend and I will definately consider going again next year with more people.

Waverly Park was good too, but it was a shame I didn't see any EFesters but that was down to nerves more than anything really. I think you lot were camped right at the top of the hill and all your tents had balloons attatched to them?

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

Didn't hear about thefts, did hear about the chaos getting in. I arrived about 8 in the evening Thursday so the backlog had more or less cleared by then.

[Kowalski]

15 year old makes rape claim

[krisskross]

its really positive about bestival on the front page of efests right now... rape, racism and cancellations.

if you think thats bad for drinks prices, never go to Koko. £4.50 for a can of red stripe. taking the piss.

[paulomas]

do efestivals have a problem with bestival or something? i had an absolutely amazing time. every band i saw was great, every person i met was lovely. amazing atmosphere, so much fun on the fancy dress day. firework display after bjork on the sunday was incredible. out of the 5 festivals i've been to this summer, bestival has been the most fun. definitely going back next year for my third time

[jump]

What makes you think efests has a problem with Bestival, the Eddy Temple Morris article seems more in favour of Bestival than Eddy, they always put up wanted suspects for other fests and Kelis is just news.

[glasto_mongrel_2008]

I had an amazing time despite getting my phone nicked. I agree that the beer prices were a bit over the top, but it wasn't difficult to take your own in, I never got stopped once.

The site is wonderful, especially the woods, I also enjoyed the toboggan ride except for coming off on a bend and getting a bit of a cut on my knee. I'd say it's a bit like Glastonbury lite. Easier to get around (smaller and less crowded) similar happy/crazy atmosphere, plenty to do, great decor and a good selection of stages.

As long as the line-up remains decent, I think I'll be going again.

[eFestivals]

do efestivals have a problem with bestival or something?

Nope, not at all. They're news stories. News is not always good news.

With the Eddy Temple-Morris story, while it's a story I know that Bestival would have preferred us not to run anything about that as news (we'd already done it when they asked), we offered to work with them over any amendments they might like us to make, and they chose not to ask for any. I've heard since that they were far happier with how we chose to report that than how other places reported it.

At this time of year there's far less news worthy items than at other times of the year, so it is the case that we're writing news on things which we wouldn't do at other times of the year (tho purely from the fact that we don't have the resources to write up everything we might do at some points in the year), and I suppose that impacts slightly back on what we publish about Bestival, just by it's time in the year - but it's simply that and nothing else.

[glasto_mongrel_2008]

what was bjorks setlist like, cant find any reviews?

[eFestivals]

What makes you think efests has a problem with Bestival, the Eddy Temple Morris article seems more in favour of Bestival than Eddy, they always put up wanted suspects for other fests and Kelis is just news.

Exactly that.

It happens to be the case that the IoW old bill are more proactive than most other police forces in issuing press releases, so we get to hear of stuff that otherwise we might not know of. And of course the sort of press releases that the old bill are likely to make are likely to be on the more negative side of things. We choose to report such things as our reporting might help them nick the guilty which can only be a good thing.

The Kelis thing made me laugh. It's very stupid of the woman to have no respect for others by queue jumping and expect that others won't show a lack of respect back. The racism she suffered as a result is of course abhorrent and the wrong way for anyone to go, but it's within the realms of possibilities that the racism was meant more as a piss-take at her uncivilised behaviour than as outright racism (tho of course that 'pisstake' still pans out as racist).

But whatever it was, it appears to be provoked by her own actions, and she needs to wise up and not go thinking she's got a right to jump the queue because she's somehow better than others - after all, racism is the same thing, people thinking they're better than others!

[Kowalski]

No sane person dishes out racial abuse just because somebody queue jumps and I'm very surprised by the tone taken in the news story I'm afraid.

[halfpint]

I had an amazing time despite getting my phone nicked. I agree that the beer prices were a bit over the top, but it wasn't difficult to take your own in, I never got stopped once.

The site is wonderful, especially the woods, I also enjoyed the toboggan ride except for coming off on a bend and getting a bit of a cut on my knee. I'd say it's a bit like Glastonbury lite. Easier to get around (smaller and less crowded) similar happy/crazy atmosphere, plenty to do, great decor and a good selection of stages.

As long as the line-up remains decent, I think I'll be going again.

[glasto_mongrel_2008]

I took my own cans every day, never got stopped once and and only saw one person having their bag searched. The toboggan run looked great - did you have to pay to go on it?

Loved the festival, great line up, great layout etc - definitly going next year in place of glasto.

[eFestivals]

No sane person dishes out racial abuse just because somebody queue jumps and I'm very surprised by the tone taken in the news story I'm afraid.

I agree - only someone who doesn't get what racism is or who wants to be racist would do that. I'm in no way suggesting that racism has any place, no matter what she'd done.

All the same, it's still the case that if someone is obnoxious they really shouldn't be surprised if someone is similarly obnoxious back. By Kelis' actions she caused a reaction that she holds some culpability for. It doesn't sound from what she wrote that she's able to recognise her own part in what happened.

The sad fact is that there's still plenty of blatant racists around, and if a racist is provoked by an action of one they hate then it doesn't take a genius to work out how they're likely to respond. While I'm saddened that no one turned on the racist to voice their disgust at his racism, it's possible that those people were considering the obnoxiousness from both sides as about equal and left them to it - after all, Kelis had been obnoxious to all of them, while the racist only went at the one person who'd been obnoxious.

The simple fact is this: if Kelis didn't have a lack of respect for others then she'd not be aware of the lack of respect the racist had for her because of her skin colour. That's not an irrelevance to what happened.

Edited September 13, 2011 by eFestivals

[HurrahBrother]

To be Honest, if it wasn't for my back playing up, I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more.

Lots to do and see before you get to the music.

Top notch entertainment.

Plenty of effort put into places.

Helpful staff.

Reasonable camping facilities.

Food, not bad at all, in both cost and quality.

The downsides other than my back.

I don't like the sealed off arena way of doing things.

Beer, too pricey for my liking. Ale only from selected outlets (damned poor show in my book).

That hill when on the way out when laden with your stuff, ugh!

[BlackHole2006]

Who do you reckon we're gonna get in 2012 then?

[kaosmark2]

Who do you reckon we're gonna get in 2012 then?

[nicktrow]

Probably not Losers.

P.S. Liking the new forum look, sign in was hard to find though.

Edited September 13, 2011 by nicktrow