Bestival highs and lows

[Bisque]

High's

Getting there was actually a doodle, despite arriving at peak time.

A lot easier to meet up with friends in the campsite & arena this year.

Younger crowd seemed to be fine & I found mostly in awe at how much better Bestival was to R&L/IoW etc.

The weather, no need for those wellies.

Two Door Cinema Club.

Sub Focus's new light rings.

Camo & Krooked before Stevie.

Welcoming IoW crowd I camped with.

Bogs were always clean & most had roll (you should carry some on you along with hand sanitizer anyway).

My mate said his Wagamama's was pretty special.

Fireworks to bear hug.

Low's

Crush on the right hand side by the bar & toilets during XX.

Mates told me that there was people falling over & a crush during Hot Chip to the left on the Big Top.

Only trouble I had was with a gentleman jumping over people & not being able to stand up mid day on Sunday & repetitively falling into me, perhaps on purpose too. He didn't apologise to anyone he barged or bashed into, even I know when I've had a few to apologise but this fella just didn't care. Ketamine I think. It was sorted out before I left.

The XX were dull & I was stuck near the front.

Sigur Ros, I didn't get it.

Thought Stanton Warriors on Arcadia was a bit quiet/muted.

Lots of drugs on show. I know they are around at festivals but I've not been to one where it has been so openly done, perhaps due to younger crowd.

Big Green Coach stewards doing sweet fa on Monday & poor organisation of how people got onto the coaches.

Said IoW crowd I camped with leaving all their tents, a fair amount of rubbish & items behind despite most of them going home at some point before Sunday.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Couchy

[weirdfish]

First Bestival too

Highs:

Ambient Forest. Absolutely loved it, I had an incredible night there on the Saturday due to certain substances and completely forgot to see any music, but I didn't even care. Awesome stuff.

Mr B The Gentlemen Rhymer. I imagine only a couple hundred people saw him, but I was hammered and it was probably the most fun I had all weekend. Hilarious and great atmosphere in that place (no idea what it was called and couldn't find it later in the weekend!).

De La Soul. Brilliant fun, exactly what I needed as a late afternoon performance. Excellent live act despite being so late on.

Sigur Ros. To be fair I was fucked, but I thought they were absolutely awesome despite the technical difficulties. Can only imagine how good they would have been at night with a proper light show and if the band were in a good mood. Will be seeing them on their European tour next year for sure.

Stevie Wonder. I only know a few of his biggest songs but he was the perfect way to end the festival. Having heard reports of Spiritualized I'm delighted I stayed for Stevie, he was great.

Fireworks. Loved it. Not much else to say. Wonderful way to end Bestival.

Friendly Fires. Went in not knowing a single one of their songs and left feeling like a die hard fan. Never a dull moment and an incredibly energetic, tight set. Will be seeing them again I'm sure.

The Horrors. A lot better than when I saw them at Reading.

The weather! Couldn't believe our luck. Gorgeous sunshine until sunday afternoon.

Security not searching you as you went into the arena. Any reasonable attempt to hide alcohol and you could easily get it in, which was a nice change from Reading. Furthermore, security as the initial wristband exchange was much more chilled than I had been led to believe. Saw one dog all weekend.

Better atmosphere than Reading, no c**ts burning their tents on the sunday. No dickheads just there to cause shit and make trouble. You can't expect there to be no dickheads at all but I was very happy with most of the people I encountered.

Awesome decorations and ambience around the whole festival. Really gave it much more of a 'festival feel' than Reading which just seems to characterless after having been to Bestival. So long as the line up is good I'll definitely be back next year.

Lows.

Not much to complain about really, but it wasn't perfect.

The weather. I had this in my highs, but from about 12pm to 3pm it was so hot that all I could do was sunbathe and drink at my tent. Meant that I didn't see as much music I usually do at festivals owing to it being so exhausting doing anything during the day. A bit more cloud cover would have been perfect Still, I can't complain too much and it was certainly better than pissing rain all weekend.

Big bands on tiny stages. Left Alt-J after about five minutes as I could barely hear or see anything.

Either allow alcohol in the arena or drastically decrease the price of alcohol inside. Over 4 quid for not even a pint is a joke. Although as I said before, getting booze in was a doddle so no biggie.

Stewards didn't have a clue. Got lost on my way out due to wrong directions and almost missed my ferry. Oh well.

Overall a brilliant weekend and barring a terrible line up for 2013 I will definitely be coming back!

[Bisque]

The weather. I had this in my highs, but from about 12pm to 3pm it was so hot that all I could do was sunbathe and drink at my tent. Meant that I didn't see as much music I usually do at festivals owing to it being so exhausting doing anything during the day. A bit more cloud cover would have been perfect Still, I can't complain too much and it was certainly better than pissing rain all weekend.

[kaosmark2]

Stevie Wonder. I only know a few of his biggest songs but he was the perfect way to end the festival. Having heard reports of Spiritualized I'm delighted I stayed for Stevie, he was great.

[Joe-]

Had some problems but it was the best festival I've ever done.

[Jeremy]

Highs

The weather - perhaps the best I've ever experienced at a festival in 22 years ! Up there with Glasto 2000

Amazing fancy dress outfits - people really put the effort in

Amphitheatre

Ambient Forest

Wagamama food

Women's institute tent - tea and cake 70p - good effort ladies

Smuggling booze in no problem down the trousers

The awesome views across the site

Very friendly people everywhere we went in IOW and at Bestival

IOW

Hoovercraft - 10 mins ...yup it shifted !

Easily meeting nice people to share cab to and from B and B

Waking up in a bed for the first time during a Festival

Walk along Ryde sandy beach in the sun on Saturday morning

De la Soul - rocked the party big time ...but cut short cos they went on so late (sort it out tour manager!)

Micheal Kiwanuka - sublime...wow what a great surprise!

New Order- so much better than 10 years ago and lots of fun despite knowing less than half

House band(?) in Peoples Front room Friday night - awesome vocals and vibey tent

The Horrors - love them always impressive live

Lows

1 hour wait to get in on Friday as Bestival ran out of wristbands -how can this happen ?!??! an embarrassing mess !

Losing brand new Original Panama Hat @ Wagamama's and returning within a minute to find it gone presumed stolen

Portsmouth and Southsea station is grim

Suishi tent was poor

Booze prices were very high

Attempts at stopping booze coming in - whats the point ?

Roots Manuva - he and the band looked a bit clueless at times

Death in Vegas - indulgent

I had a really good time. I saw less bands than last year but soaked up the festival vibe much more around the site and the sun made such a difference.

[rexclark]

Highs

• The site is beatuiful and the effort put into the decoration is fantastic. I was very impressed with the effort put into everything, even down to the smallest details.

• Hot Chip - Fantastic as usual even if the tent was far too busy.

• Adam Ant - A huge surprise. Alot of people said beforehand he's been poor but I felt he was bang on the money and the crowd loved it. Stand And Deliver was probably my favourite song of the weekend.

• The Cocktail bar in The Ambiant Forrest. £6 for a cocktail with two shots of alcohol and plenty of fresh fruit is pretty decent in my eyes.

• The Lost Picture Show tent, some cracking Cartoons and films on show. Would've actually liked to have spent more time there.

• Sister Sledge - From what I saw of them they were really fun.

• The weather. Too warm for some but I'd take that over rain any day.

• The Campsite banter on the Sunday. Discussing Jimmmy Saville's aleged sexual preferences (you'd have to have been there to understand)

• The Grand Palace Of Entertainment. Wether it was MusicalBingo or the drag show, I had the most fun of the weekend in that tent.

• New Order - Missed quite alot of their set but loved every minute of what I saw.

• The food. A wonderful selection and for the most part, not overly expensive.

Lows

• The queues to get in. It seemed to take forever especially in that heat.

• Overcrowding. It got pretty dangerous during some acts and I'm glad noone got hurt.

• Although I enjoyed the weather, I hated the fact it made me so tired. Missed quite a few acts because by after 12pm I was absolutely shattered.

• Missing Justice and 2 Many DJs because of the above.

• Missing Soulwax as we hadn't heard they'd been moved.

• The horrible journey home.

• Stewards were for the most part useless. Most didn't have a clue where anything was andmost seemed to turn a blind eye to some absolutely dickish behaviour.

• Toilet queues in the campsite.

There's probably loads more but that's the main ones. I did have an enjoyable weekend but I doubt I'll be back unless there's someone I really want to see like Daft Punk.

Bestival does waht it does really well and I'm impressed with the whole site and the effort put in but IMO it's trying too hard to be Glastonbury when there can be only one Glastonbury. If people are looking for a smaller version of Glastonbury then Bestival is ideal but I just felt everything was a bit too contrived and they were trying too hard whereas at Glastonbury it just seems to be more natural.

[DJL]

Re the comments about stewards - i was there as one, for the first time, and agree it could have been a lot better. Oxfam only put stewards in the places bestival told them and these were often illogical. I was dragging unconcious people off of the floor for justice and carrying them to the first aid tent but was told to man a different (deserted) area because that's what bestival had planned (and paid) for. We weren't given a decent map so it's not surprising people were mis-directing!

The low number of stewards was a mixture of some people being genuinely ill from drinking some dodgy water (as i say i was in the first aid tent) and others not turning up for shifts after heavy nights. Listening to the reports on the security radio during the night shift was pretty scary- there were a LOT of very 'disoriented' people!

Highlight was getting to tour the empty site on the wednesday after a smoke, when half the areas were still being built and the forest was completely deserted - bliss.

[kaytee...]

Highs

• The whole presentation of the festival - the decoration and attention to detail everywhere including the signs for bars was brilliant. Virtually no branding anywhere just a lot of creativity

• The weather. Never guaranteed but this was the first festival I didn't have to wear wellies to and it felt amazing

• Ambient forest - So beautiful, especially at night andthere were so many different walkways I found somewhere new each time I was in there. The Africa area was a personal favourite.

• Blue camp. Fairly close to the arena but not too rowdy which was great, minus being camped on the slope

• Sigur Ros - I bought my ticket when they were announced and I got to the front to witness them. They looked miffed with the technical issues but I thought they were incredible regardless

• Drambuie cider coolers. Expensive but so so good

• Choice of food on offer. No dodgy burgers everyday. And the rotisserie chicken stall was the best thing I've ever eaten at a festival for the price

• The friendly atmosphere. No trouble seen all weekend and people were just happy all the time

Lows

• Around the big top early hours Sunday morning being asked if I was selling anything numerous times. I've never touched drugs in my life and don't judge people who do but I was probably drinking tea by then jeez

• The hills. The incline to the shuttle bus on Monday was a killer

• The shuttle bus situation - all was fine getting there but a 6 hour queue to Ryde that I couldn't get out of was pretty terrible. I and many others missed coach/train connections as a result

• Main stage sound. I was stuck at the side near the viewing platform for Stevie and all I could hear was bass and drums. Only realised what was being sung halfway through the song at times

• The amount of kids openly sniffing whatever of their hands and constantly talking about what they were gonna take next whilst I was trying to watch The XX

• Queuing 45 mins to use the loo in the campsite

• There should be another day. Too much to see and do in four days

[Bisque]

1 hour wait to get in on Friday as Bestival ran out of wristbands -how can this happen ?!??! an embarrassing mess !

[whisty]

• Stewards were for the most part useless. Most didn't have a clue where anything was andmost seemed to turn a blind eye to some absolutely dickish behaviour.

[Rachie]

Highs:

The festival turning the foul mood id arrived in around in a couple of hours.

New Order

The weather

The food

Mr Motivator

The view at the top of the massive hill

The cafe and breakfast on top of that massive hill.

Arcadia

Some poetry/rap guy i saw somewhere on Thursday night at around 10-11pm?? (can anyone help with this!?)

The forest and the hammocks <3

fire wood pizzas

The effort that had gonme into some of the costumes i saw!! Amazing!

Andy, a guy who camped next to us who had no friends became a brilliant friend of ours, made our weekend that little bit better

Hotel in Ryde after the festival...looking at the ques, i never been so glad to stay an extra day.

Lows

- The travel....14 hrs to get there...jeeeze.

- national express are in compedent. I now actually HATE them.

Being robbed from the coach!! 60 quid matress.

Being in the wrong que for 3 hours, and then having to pay 30 quid to go on the ferry becuase i only had a hovercraft ticket (my ticked didnt menchen hovercraft at ALL on thw ticket...it called the 'boat' a coach ffs.

-The fact there was no space at 7pm thursday to put your tent, after walking round for almost 2 hours we began to put it up one foot over the 'white line' only to be threatened aggressivly by security. A few hours later 4 (yes 4!) tents were over that bloody white line behind us - totaly unnessery the security giving us such a hard time. (threatened us with esscorting us off sight.)

-not many toilets by the campsite, seemed to be constantly massive ques no matter what time of the day.

-The rain/coldness on sunday night.

-Our tent getting 'smashed-up' two poles completly broken.

-Only discovering Bollywood/that whole area at 2am monday morning!!!! argghhhh!!

-lastly the coach crash...we traveled by coach, going to merseyside alot of friends and family phoned us/posted on fb wall in panic on tuesday morning. It really did put alot of our traveling woes into perspective. We felt so sick on the way back to liverpool, we could have very easily been on that coach. so so sad.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Rachie

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

HIGH

Despite years of festivalling and always finding my tent, I simply couldn't find it at about midnight on the first night. My mates were still out gallavanting so there was no point in phoning them. I walked around and around for hours whilst getting increasingly more drunk (for I had drink on me!). I then got very cold and realised I'd need shelter for the night. I began lying on the grass but thought I could die of exposure so looked for somewhere else to rest my bones. I came across a 2 person tent that had been pegged down but not put up. So, naturally enough, I crawled into it. A few hours later I heard a group say ' there's someone in there' then another said ' no, it's just the way it's folded'. Then I heard the words ' give it a kick to see'. At this point I thought it prudent to pop my head out of the tent and explain my position. The people seemed OK with this so I popped back into the flat tent. I then heard ' excuse me' so I popped my head out of the tent again and it was a woman who was offering me a red blanket to use to increase my chances of survival. True festival spirit. I got up several hours later and was able to call one of my mates who had also just returned and had to be 'guided in' to where our tents were.

I'd just like to publicly thank that group and especially that lady who showed the true festival spirit. That was one of the best highs.

LOW

I didn't have one.

RIP to those that didn't make it back.

[loosechange]

Too many highs to list.

Lows - having planned my Saturday costume around the blazing sun (and not particularly well even then, as it turned out during the heat of the day), by 1am I was fucking freezing and headed back to camp to change into warmer clothes - but the CV field was taped off with police tape and there was a fire vehicle blocking the entrance - just assumed a 'van had caught fire or something.

It was only having left Bestival on Monday and arrived at the campsite we were staying at before heading home on Tuesday that we found out someone had actually died in their 'van. And then the next morning woke up to the news of the terrible coach crash.

Very sad.

[When Jokers Attack]

HIGH

Despite years of festivalling and always finding my tent, I simply couldn't find it at about midnight on the first night.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Haha brilliant. It took me about 2 hours to find mine on the first night. Was wandering around the wrong campsites.

[rachbon]

Highs

The effort that went into decorating the whole site to look good. The signs on all of the bars were really cool. There was so much attention to detail with everything. I loved the fact that the owl on the main stage had laser eyes at night!

The ambient forest. This was my favourite thing about the festival. Me and rexclark spent ages in there during the day and at night. It was great wondering around at night with a torch, not having a clue where we were going or what we would find. The lakeside stage is just beautiful at night the way it's all lit up.

The grand palace of entertainment. Went in a few times and it was always a great laugh. A highlight of the festival was playing musical bingo.

The bollywood and ballroom fields. They always seemed a bit more quiet and peaceful than the main areas.

The toilets were always clean and usually had toilet paper. The only problem was having to queue at times.

Loved First Aid Kit and Adam Ant. Quite surprised at how much I enjoyed both sets.

The out of africa cocktail bar.

The blue campsite. It was pretty quiet at night, didn't get any hassle from anyone or see anyone acting like idiots.

The complete lack of searches going from the campsite to arena. Managed to sneak plenty of booze in. Ended up not even bothering to hide it.

Lows

The 2.5 hour queue to get in on the Thursday. Especially since loads of us got a bus from the Waverly campsite, and some people only queued for an hour because they were standing at a different bit in the queue. How can some parts of the queue move more than twice as slow as other parts? It was ridiculous. Then we finally got to the front and realised that they were searching every single rucksack. No need for it.

The sound bleed between stages. The main stage was being drowned out by other stages at times and that just shouldn't happen.

The crowds for some acts. I had to give up on seeing a few acts because it was just so crowded, you couldn't get anywhere near the stage so it was pointless. Ben Howard was the worst.

The main stage and big top being so close to each other. This creates a problem when there's a big crowds at both stages. These stages should be in separate fields. It's a problem that could be solved with a slight change to the layout.

The unfriendly, hostile and inconsiderate behaviour of a lot of people. We were constantly having to jump out of the way quickly while we were walking because people would just quickly charge towards you, clearly with no intention of walking around you. During Sigur Ros, I didn't see a single person just watching the set. Every single person was chatting. With an act where the music is quite subdued and quiet, you can hear everyone chatting so it's just plain rude to ruin it for people who are actually interested in the music. Why don't people just fuck off away from the music stages if they want to chat?

Having to queue for 2 hours for a shuttle bus on the Monday morning then 3 and a half hours for a ferry. The ferry we got was the last one which would have got us to Southampton in time for our flight back to Glasgow. You can't blame the ferry companies but the shuttle buses were just a pure shambles. They should have been sending buses more often.

Some of the bars only selling cans. I don't mind paying £4.20 for a pint because it's not much more than pub prices. But how can they justify charging the same price for a can when they weren't pint sized cans?

Overall, I had a good time. But I feel like they are copying Glastonbury way too much. Bestival doesn't have it's own identity. It's trying to be like Glasto, and failing. They have some great ideas like the ambient forest, I think with some more original ideas and less copying, it could be a great festival. The ticket prices cost almost as much as Glasto, but you don't get anywhere near as much for your money. There's also the fact that it cost us an absolute fortune to get there. I'm glad I went to a different festival in the Glasto fallow year, but unless Daft Punk headline, I doubt I'll go back.

[rexclark]

Haha brilliant. It took me about 2 hours to find mine on the first night. Was wandering around the wrong campsites.

[Vacant0]

Lows

The 2.5 hour queue to get in on the Thursday. Especially since loads of us got a bus from the Waverly campsite, and some people only queued for an hour because they were standing at a different bit in the queue. How can some parts of the queue move more than twice as slow as other parts? It was ridiculous. Then we finally got to the front and realised that they were searching every single rucksack. No need for it.

[When Jokers Attack]

I did the same. Mad a point of remembering we were camped adjacent The Phsycadelic Worm and were near a fence. Spent ages walking around trying to find this fence then eventually realised I was on the completely wrong side of the tent in a completely different campsite!

[When Jokers Attack]

During Sigur Ros, I didn't see a single person just watching the set. Every single person was chatting. With an act where the music is quite subdued and quiet, you can hear everyone chatting so it's just plain rude to ruin it for people who are actually interested in the music. Why don't people just fuck off away from the music stages if they want to chat?

[Bort]

The unfriendly, hostile and inconsiderate behaviour of a lot of people. We were constantly having to jump out of the way quickly while we were walking because people would just quickly charge towards you, clearly with no intention of walking around you. During Sigur Ros, I didn't see a single person just watching the set. Every single person was chatting. With an act where the music is quite subdued and quiet, you can hear everyone chatting so it's just plain rude to ruin it for people who are actually interested in the music. Why don't people just fuck off away from the music stages if they want to chat?

[Paul ™]

RDB has already confirmed the Big Top will be bigger next year and will be moved to a different field, that will make a great difference.

[kaosmark2]

This is extremely disappointing to hear. I've been considering Bestival for next year, but reports like this are making me reconsider. These talking assholes have already ruined all the American festivals and countless gigs. I was hoping it wouldn't be like that at Bestival since most people at Glastonbury are too drunk to even attempt to carry on a conversation so they just sing along or fall down.

[bexj]

It's like inconsiderate nob heads that come back to a quiet campsite at 4am and put loud music on and then proceed to sing loudly too. Chatter I can handle, music fine too but schreeching - nah. We had our revenge though (quietly) the following night!!