Today's announcement

[smogo]

Making a very welcome return to Bestival is Bat For Lashes. A firm favourite round our way, the Mercury Prize and Brit nominated chanteuse is currently recording the follow up to her acclaimed second album Two Suns and we really can’t wait to see her again. Singer-songwriter Ben Howard will also be making an appearance with his rootsy folk stylings, which helped his debut album Every Kingdom to a top ten chart position, making him a certainty to captivate the crowds. Masked beat manipulator SBTRKT will be liberating your feet with his tribal post-dubstep melange, plus there will be dub, hip-hop and raga coated in the unique lyrical dexterity of Roots Manuva and the exalted Alabama Shakes, who have been getting everyone from the likes of David Byrne to Adele giddy with glee, will be demonstrating just why they’re so hotly tipped.

There will also be penetrating verse in a UK festival exclusive from much admired emcee Sage Francis, boundary beating pop and yet another UK festival exclusive from Grimes, Brooklyn flavoured electro-pop from Chairlift, dirty throbbing bass from Gesaffelstein, Danish punk action with Iceage, cinematic soul from BBC Sound of 2012 nominee Ren Harvieu, post-industrial, noisenik disco from Factory Floor, dreamy pop from Porcelain Raft, shimmering psychedelia from Toy and lo-fi loveliness from Kindness. And there are plenty more musical charms on offer from Dismantle, Dirty Beaches, General Levy, Top Cat feat. Sir Coxsone Outernational, Josh Kumra, Errors, Trailer Trash Tracys, Forest Swords, Stay+, Skinny Lister, Misty’s Big Adventure, Ryan Keen, Nina Nesbitt, BIGkids, The Lovely Eggs, Alt-J, St Spirit, Charming, Shepherds and Seán McGowan.

That’s not all, as the turntable worrying skills of Detroit techno wizard Moodymann, Gallic electro-houser Kavinsky and dubstep jukester Girl Unit are all set to make appearances to hype up the dancefloor. And in the Ambient Forest there will be some suitably soothing sounds from the inimitable Mixmaster Morris, Chris Coco, Phil Mison and Pete Gooding.

[Poleski]

Not much there to be honest...

I like Bat for Lashes, SBTRKT, Gesaffelstein and Moodyman. That's about it though.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Not unhappy about that announcement. 6 or 7 bands I know (and like) out of 30+ isn't bad at all, and the rest I'll check out later. I think I misjudged the size of the sort of bands Rob was announcing though; when he said "smaller", I didn't think it'd be 'that' small. Not complaining - will wait and see if we get anything bigger along with the headliner though.

[Joe-]

Yeah, I hyped it up in my head more than I should have. I was hoping for more bands I'd know, but now I have lots to listen to (not a bad thing!). Sbtrkt and Errors are the only bands that stood out for me.

Will M83 ever be announced?

Edited March 9, 2012 by Joe-

[Poleski]

Bat For Lashes will be good though, have wanted to see them for a few years now!

[Paul ™]

Hopefully an updated spotify playlist will happen soon...

Edited March 9, 2012 by Paul ™

[theampersanddevil]

Hopefully an updated spotify playlist will happen soon...

[When Jokers Attack]

Happy with Errors and Kavinsky!

[Homer]

In fairness, they did prepare us for a 'wonderful' announcement. Underwhelming would have been closer to the mark...

[Paul ™]

Due to a self-impossed night in I will be updating it tonight. Usual rules apply, no more than five songs by each act, can change any songs you want and add any band thats playing. Will add the link when I've updated it.

[Homer]

Good lad

RDB did say it was going to be a lot of smaller acts.. which is what's been delivered along with a couple of reasonable sized one.

Good few in there I would watch so not underwhelming for me... one mans rubbish is another mans treasure

[Paul ™]

Yeah personally is subjective on your own opinion of acts.

Personally, they delivered on that for me

[LondonTom]

What was you all expected then? We've got most of the big names haven't we? Rob has deliver once more reall, a load of exciting smaller bands. And Rob is hardly going say "Yeah I have a bunch of unknown medicore acts to announce tommorow!" is he now?

Anyway pretty happy myself, with SBTRKT, Roots Manuva and Errors added . (Think bestival now has the most acts I am excited to see this year out of any festival lineup so far!)

Edited March 9, 2012 by LondonTom

[Paul ™]

Spot on Tom.

I mean what other festival do you get this

"if you want to take part in a night time ping-pong tournament in the woods, go tree climbing or join the Wildlife tug of war (first round will be Foxes vs Cockroaches)"

[lifelessfool]

I'm pretty happy with it, looking forward to chairlift, kavinsky and bats for lashes out of that batch,

[theampersanddevil]

I am pretty happy with Scrubious Pip, Bat for Lashes & the errors. In truth I'm reading far to much into the errors being there and hoping it means Mogwai are there.

I am going to have a great weekend checking out all the bestival unknown to me's.

[Paul ™]

Links on this line up poster take you to the artist bio with some videos, tracks etc

http://2012.bestival.net/line-up

[theampersanddevil]

Links on this line up poster take you to the artist bio with some videos, tracks etc

http://2012.bestival.net/line-up

[Poleski]

What was you all expected then? We've got most of the big names haven't we? Rob has deliver once more reall, a load of exciting smaller bands. And Rob is hardly going say "Yeah I have a bunch of unknown medicore acts to announce tommorow!" is he now?

Anyway pretty happy myself, with SBTRKT, Roots Manuva and Errors added . (Think bestival now has the most acts I am excited to see this year out of any festival lineup so far!)

[Paul ™]

Plenty more to come yet

[eFestivals]

Spot on Tom.

I mean what other festival do you get this

every village fete in every village in Britain?

[Joe-]

If you look at last years undercard and this year then we should still have A LOT of big name DJ's etc to come.

This time last year the dance line up was so much stronger. Theres only a handful of dance related acts I currently want to see, most of which I can see at other festivals anyway.

[Paul ™]

every village fete in every village in Britain?

[Homer]

Yeah personally is subjective on your own opinion of acts.

Personally, they delivered on that for me

[Paul ™]

Thanks for the explanation, though fortunately I already understand what personally means, which is why I used the word in the first place (and in the correct context too!).