Bestival 2017

[Nobody Interesting]

30 minutes ago, kerplunk said:

That would be a  surprising thing to happen at a festival!

I'm sure Bestival isn't for everyone - people have different expectations. I'm one for who Bestival had lost it's shine a bit in recent years and gave it a miss last year after an unbroken run of 10 festivals, so my return this year was a quite tentative and driven by curiosity as much as anything else. I'm glad I went though - fun was had and no major problems with the organisation (apart the lack of real ale which is actually quite a big one for me - but I'll let them off just this once so long as it's sorted next year!).

I think they have  a contract with suppliers so the same drinks are at all their festivals hence no real ale, which bugged me  a bit too, but for you I hope they sort it out for next year.

[Paul ™]

They managed it at Robin Hill, no decent cider is a festival must for me these days...

[smogo]

There was a "craft beer" stall right opposite the main stage. I didn't investigate, so I don't know if they were selling that American muck or just real ale under a trendy name.

[kerplunk]

3 minutes ago, smogo said:

There was a "craft beer" stall right opposite the main stage. I didn't investigate, so I don't know if they were selling that American muck or just real ale under a trendy name.

Yeah we 'investigated' it a fair few times to break up the Amstels/Strongbow monotony, they had fairly nice (but expensive) IPA and Pils. No cask ale. On Saturday evening we finally found a bar in a hopitality area with some very nice amber ale on (forget the name but it was 5%) which was nice while it lasted - it was closed on Sunday.

[smogo]

Oh yeah, the courtyard bar, that was a nice little hidden chill-out area.

[tillyandthewall]

Well, that was good.  I've previously been on the IOW from 2012-14 but the last few years seemed to be on the wane.  I was excited for all the headliners and Shadow, and exploring a new site.

 

Travel was fine by coach, avoided any holdups.  About 10 minutes to get wristband sorted and a walk past a sniffer dog.  The site's compact, considering I had a 45 minute walk from crew camp to the Port on the IOW, camping was really close.

 

Thursday was a good settling-in day, Jamie T was rammed but not uncomfortable.  Arena checks were the usual bit of ingenuity required.

Friday was a good chance to explore.  I wonder how many people didn't see the Lawn all weekend?  The Feast Collective was top-notch, the Indonesian beef curry hit the spot even for lunch.  The xx have grown as a band, very confident.  Spent time in my two favourite venues, Club Dada and Caravanserai.

 

After that the mud started to hit the spirits and there was less wanderlust, but still got around.  My highlights was seeing Tribe (obvs,) the ridiculous talent of Danny Brown and Charlotte Church's Pop Dungeon - I've not seen this in the past as I thought it was just a DJ set, silly me.  PSB and Yoda helped to lift the spirits on Sunday.

 

Overall I think it was a partial success, never saw any trouble, enough to do so that you can just about cover it all over a course of a weekend, and if you like a wide range of music styles you can have a bit of each.  And lets not forget not all festivals have the late bands/ DJ curfews like Bestival.

 

They've made a good start that can be built upon.  The site needs a little rejig, the main drag with Kanye and the disco ball was well used but there was st‎ill grass by Desperados all weekend.  There was a bit of soundclash between the stages, particularly Invaders of the Future, and Reggae Roots.  A mobile mast for EE would be nice, yeah I know you can get away from technology at festivals but it would be handy.

Another good lineup and I'll be back, I'd like to see some bigger names, that you can chill to in the early afternoons on the main stage to draw in people each day.

[JC-Mo'Fucka]

On 9/13/2017 at 9:23 AM, smogo said:

I thought Bestival worked quite well at the new site. It'd be nice if they could somehow divide the main arena into themed areas a bit better, but the geography of the site makes that difficult.

Still, there were about 22 stages dotted around, and nicely spaced out to minimise sound bleed (at last - the main stage and the big top (sorry, "The Box") are located in different fields!). I was very glad that they'd brought back HMS Bestival, Reggae Roots and the Comedy tent after a year or more's absence, and it's good that the Ambient Forest lives on despite the move.

Not the strongest lineup of all time, but Saturday was packed - and although I don't like all of the following acts, other festivals would kill for a main stage running order like this:
Nadia Rose - Stefflon Don - Rejjie Snow - Laura Mvula - Danny Brown - Rag 'n' Bone Man - Dizzee Rascal - A Tribe Called Quest

Highlights of the weekend for me were Dizzee Rascal, Charlotte Church's Late Night Pop Dungeon and - on the comedy stage - Andrew Maxwell. And the food at the Feast Collective, which is always amazing.

Lowlights were: well, the weather. If Robin Hill had been bathing in glorious sunshine all weekend I'd have been really pissed off, but it looks like the Isle of Wight was just as stormy, so what ya gonna do? Just put up with it and plough on through.

I didn't spot a single bit of aggression or violence this year. And it was a nice, friendly crowd, just not as wild & crazy as usual, but I think that was because of the weather and the mud.

I had no sense of what the numbers were like, other than the fact that they never even pretended that it was about to sell out this year. But next year, all the smaller festivals ought to get a boost from Glastonbury's fallow year, so Bestival 2018 ought to do very well.

While 2017 doesn't join the upper echelons of my favourite ever Bestivals (they're probably 2011, 2012 and controversially 2016), I had an amazing weekend as usual, and really it was only the awful weather that let it down. I already can't wait for my ninth one next year...!

3

I agree with almost all of this. The glory days of stevie wonder and having acts pack out the big top in the afternoon are well behind us, but it's a new good start for them. It would be hard to justify paying more than £160/170 but you could get tics for that price at one point, so fair play to em. 

 

I have no idea if there were enough people there for it to have been profitable enough, but I hope so! 

[JC-Mo'Fucka]

Also did anyone go inside Kanye's head? That might have been my favourite moment second to Tribe! 

[smogo]

10 hours ago, JC-Mo'Fucka said:

Also did anyone go inside Kanye's head? That might have been my favourite moment second to Tribe! 

I never saw it open!

[jackarmy]

14 hours ago, JC-Mo'Fucka said:

Also did anyone go inside Kanye's head? That might have been my favourite moment second to Tribe! 

Got in it on the Wednesday night - very good fun!

I'm hopeful that Bestival will continue next year, their social media team has still been fairly active. I would suggest perhaps scaling back on the likes of Common People over 2 sites, and the overseas festivals and concentrating on the mothership.

[Nobody Interesting]

5 minutes ago, jackarmy said:

Got in it on the Wednesday night - very good fun!

I'm hopeful that Bestival will continue next year, their social media team has still been fairly active. I would suggest perhaps scaling back on the likes of Common People over 2 sites, and the overseas festivals and concentrating on the mothership.

Common people is carrying on as previously on 2 sites, no scaling back on it.

[smogo]

Well, Rob da Bank has tweeted: " Normality always feels strange after festival season...and yes I have started booking for @Bestival @CampBestival and @CommonPeopleSO /OX 18 "

Rumours of Bestival's demise are way off the mark.

[tillyandthewall]

7 hours ago, smogo said:

Well, Rob da Bank has tweeted: " Normality always feels strange after festival season...and yes I have started booking for @Bestival @CampBestival and @CommonPeopleSO /OX 18 "

Rumours of Bestival's demise are way off the mark.

There was an ad on the back of the programme, 6th - 9th September 2018.

[eFestivals]

11 hours ago, tillyandthewall said:

There was an ad on the back of the programme, 6th - 9th September 2018.

the fact they've not made that public by other means strongly suggests to me that it's not the certainty the ad suggests (and the ad might be there just because they had a page to fill). I'm guessing they want a bit of time to properly evaluate this year before fully committing.

Having said that I do (now) expect it to be back. This year's was very well received from what i've read, so I'm sure RDB will be encouraged by that.

[seantizz]

With Neil's comment up above, it's probably a good time to link into my eFestivals review of the weekend (which I finished this morning!!)... 

I had a fine time - it wasn't perfect but there was enough happening to keep me positive.. 

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/bestival/2017/review.shtml

[Frrrraaappp head]

I thought the Channel 4 TV coverage was crap this year, two 23 minute clips, one of Rag'N'Bone Man and one of the XX, two bands on the main stage, WTF!

Edited September 26, 2017 by Frrrraaappp head

[Curlygirl]

On 26/09/2017 at 4:04 PM, seantizz said:

With Neil's comment up above, it's probably a good time to link into my eFestivals review of the weekend (which I finished this morning!!)... 

I had a fine time - it wasn't perfect but there was enough happening to keep me positive.. 

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/bestival/2017/review.shtml

That was a great read thanx Sean. I've never been to Bestival before but I'm coming down that weekend to camp in Weymouth for 11 nights so I think I may have to go.