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I have just got back from the wettest and muddiest weekend I have ever been on. I'm full of cold, my belongings were all soaked and I had to pay a £103 train fare as we missed our allotted train due to the journey back to Kings Cross. This aside I had a fantastic weekend, I can't stop smiling and I have fallen in love with the festival that is Bestival. I am almost counting the days until next year.
I seem to be on a roll as 2 weeks previously I won a pair of VIP tickets to the Leeds Festival and the luck that seems to have placed itself with me managed to secure 2 VIP tickets to Bestival, they say good luck comes in 3s so I'm holding out for something else ... hopefully a competition to spend a weekend with Kings of Leon? Hmmmmm - well one can dream!!
We set off from Leeds train station at 16.40pm on the Thursday afternoon which was a rush in itself, the usual 5 minute journey from my work place ended up taking 25 minutes due to a freak of a traffic jam. The poor taxi driver had a hyper worried girl in his car; he did his best to calm my nerves and got me there in the nick of time, which was greatly appreciated as if I messed up the 1 st leg of the journey it would have set off a domino effect.
Arriving at Kings Cross we jumped on a tube to Waterloo and then got a train to Portsmouth Harbour where more festival folk joined us, everyone was in great spirits which was brilliant. We were lucky with the ferry and managed to just squeeze on so we had no waiting to do and it only took 20 minutes as we were on the fast ferry. We had got chatting to a lovely girl on the train and decided we would share a taxi with her to the site instead of waiting on the shuttle bus, which charged £3 per person. Our taxi arrived 30 minutes late so we were left standing in the rain, something that was going to be repeated many times over the next few days. The journey from the site took about 20 minutes, we paid £12 and then went to meet the promotion team who had our special wrist bands.
Next was onto the Artist's site where we were to set up camp; no stewards to help us this time, although it was 11.30pm by the time we met up with the promotion team so things could have been different in the day! It was bouncing down at this time and after much deliberation the team said we could spend the 1st night with them in a hotel and come back the next day to pitch our tent, hopefully in better conditions. I think I need to write a complaint to Pro-Action, the company who made my rucksack as everything had got soaked, even though the bag was tightly sealed. I wasn't impressed but I wasn't going to let the fact that I had to put damp pants on get me down, I tried to air everything the best I could at the hotel.
After a great night's sleep in dry surroundings we headed back to the site and put our tent up in drizzle, we were finally here and made a promise that we would try and see as much as we could in these 3 days. There was so much to see that this most definitely would be a challenge that we couldn't wait to embark on! Our campsite was small and had 4 showers and 6 toilet cubicles for each sex, so far, so good.
Friday
We started off the day looking in The Village where we were astounded that there was a Japanese restaurant. Inside it was all cosy, warm and dry, complete with comfy seats and carpeting, we made a note to visit there later. The Bandstand was extremely cute in size and hosted small bands, we had about 2 hours of sun so we sat down and listened to a few whilst reading our £6 programme and eating our gourmet fish & chips, they were extremely tasty. Alas, the heavens decided to open up on us again so to take shelter and to warm our cockles we headed to the Come Dancing Spiegeltent. Well we had so much fun in here and totally worked up a bit of a sweat. We had arrived just in time to join in the Tap Dancing, which in wellies was a bit testing but so many people joined in whilst the people seated in the audience gave us some encouragement.
We visited a few bars to have a bit of a drink and boogie, dry ourselves off and to generally take things in. The rain and the wind had gotten so bad, we had heard many people's tents got flooded so we went back to the site to see how ours had faired. It wasn't looking good, the wind had pulled our pegs out and the rain had got inside rather badly, to top things off the campsite had filled up even more, tents were virtually on top of each other. Luckily a lovely New Zealand bloke took pity on us and helped us get all the water from our tent and re-erect it! This made us miss part of the Pendulum set but what we did see was amazing, the guys certainly rocked out and got everyone ready to dance more and there were plenty of tents to do that in.
Bollywood was one of the first places on our agenda, the place was packed out, we got chatting to a fair few people whilst slowly budging our way to the front to see Erol Alkan. What we had noticed earlier on about Bestival is the vast difference in people you meet, there were families, older couples and there was no admission to anyone under the age of 18 without an adult, it was so nice to have a mixture of people from all walks of life. We ended the night determined to find the hidden disco, which is exactly what it says, to see Stanton Warriors. The acts playing at the disco were featured on the programme, you just had to find out where it was. It didn't take us too long to find it, the atmosphere in here was totally amazing with everyone just wanting to dance, we later found out that the disco was in the same place as last year so not as well hidden as 1st thought! I was going to hang my coat up at the side of the tent but was advised against it as apparently thieves were swiping anything they could, which was slightly unnerving. Saturday
Another day and more of the same weather was to follow, rushes of wind, buckets of rain and the occasional taste of sunshine, which everyone would in harmony cheer once it cared to pop it's head out. Walking past the drop off point, we saw a lot of people leaving the site with glum faces and wet heavy bags, the weather obviously getting the better of them.
The fancy dress parade was going to be at 15.45pm, as the competition win was last minute we hot footed it to the Dressing Up Box to get a relevant outfit. The theme this year was 30,000 Freaks Under the Sea so the weather was appropriate if nothing else! Unfortunately due to the weather the dressing up box was closed, the mud encapsulating its space and was nearly a foot in some places! Thankfully there was the Fairy Box next door so although we weren't going to be dressed in the theme at least we could still participate. The majority of people who attended were dressed up, people still happily wearing their well thought out outfits and getting involved, the weather clearly not stopping people's fun! We joined the parade which went from the main stage through to the 24-hour field and back. The costumes some of the people wore were amazing, a lot of time and effort definitely going in to them. There was an influx of mermaid, mammals, pirates etc. and some more original ones; the Beatles in the yellow submarine, the dead sea to name but a few.
When the parade died down we decided to have a chill out and keep out from the rain by visiting the art tent, on our way we bumped into a story teller, who looked rather like Father Christmas on holiday. He told us a story which made people gather around, joining in at the right parts. This is what I loved about Bestival, the randomness of it all. We also got stopped by people from the gin site who offered us free drink if we visited their bar and also by someone who signed us up for speed dating and gave us free t-shirts and condoms - we were promised Chlamydia pants if we went back the next day, how could we refuse!! At the art tent we chilled out and painted some aquatic themed pictures before going for our free drink at the Gin Sanctuary, it would have been rude not to!! We danced there for some time, meeting loads of great people, it was just a shame it was positioned where it was (in the Village) as due to the weather most people stayed around the main arena and the 24 hour village.
Tonight was the night that the elusive Amy Winehouse was due to play, we had heard from many people that she had cancelled but had hope and went to the main stage anyway. It looked like people were right as when we were standing around chatting to our neighbours, about to give up she came on stage – 45 minutes late. Well she needn't have bothered as she gave a paltry 20 minute set, seeming to hide away behind the musicians, never once coming to the front of the stage to greet her patiently waiting audience, definitely a downer to the evening.
Never one to let things get me down we visited The Black Dahlia tent where we danced to music from the 1920s and drank cocktails, yes very sophisticated indeed for us and a festival. Onto see Aphex Twin in the big top which had quite a gathering, they got a mixed reaction from the crowd, I personally wasn't that impressed but my friend, on the other hand, loved them. The time ticking on the choice was sleep or continue to party, well there's always time to sleep on the journey back so we had a dance in the aptly named Knees Up tent where the DJ played songs that you could sing along to which ranged from Madonna to songs from Musicals. A good cheesy laugh was had. Sunday
On the final day we woke up feeling rather sad that we would have to be leaving this magical festival the next day. The weather had improved, which was better late than never, so putting our clean but wet clothes on we agreed that we would participate in more Bestival activities.
We started the day joining in with Oz Aerobics at the Lost & Found Kidult Tent; aerobics in thick mud was certainly a challenge, but a fun one, and we were told that they would be holding a 5th birthday party for Bestival later on in the day and to re-join them for more fun.
As part of the competition prize we were allowed to get married in the inflatable church, which normally you would have to book for and pay a small fee. We four competition winners skipped through the woods to the church where we bumped into the dancing baton (everyone who held the baton had to dance until they passed it on) such good fun to see everyone participating in this. Getting married was certainly an incredibly random highlight of the festival, we were kitted up in wedding attire, the groom was to marry us 3 brides and we invited everyone who was near us to the ceremony. So much fun! We arrived back to the Lost & Found tent for the party as a happily betrothed foursome and joined in the team kiss chase, binocular musical chairs and musical statues – it was definitely like being a kid again and everyone got into the swing of it.
Underworld was the main act on the Sunday evening and they over-delivered the night, ending with massive balloons riding over the crowd and a spectacular firework display. We wanted to see DJ Yoda but the tent was at full capacity and there was security on the door not letting anyone else in, not even on a one out one in deal, which was extremely frustrating. We headed to see Laurent Garnier only to find out he had cancelled so we ended the evening in Club Da Da which was a cabaret tent, there were magicians, dancers and a bald headed naked lady swinging from a rope and positioning fingers where we really didn't need to see! Everything closed at about 5am with many people walking from place to place trying hang on to every last minute of the weekend. Monday
Leaving the site was pretty pain free, there were enough shuttle buses and taxis available for all and the staff organised the tired crowd brilliantly. I had to leave my beautiful wellies that had seen me through 5 festivals due to the mud damaging them, my poor babies, oh well a great excuse to buy some more.
The positives from the festival apart from the entertainment, which was apparent, was the food stalls. I didn't spy one dodgy burger bar, instead we had the delights of the paella stall, gourmet fish and chips, Thali curry restaurant, vegetarian café, risotto and so much more. I ate like a queen and there was so much choice for meat eaters and vegetarians alike. The prices varied with most dishes costing around £6 for a great helping. There was a good number of ATMs so there was no real queuing although they did charge £3 per transaction which was a bitter taste. The organisers had the safety of festival goers in mind and closed off areas to handle the mud and put down metal paths and hay, which did cause some acts to be rescheduled but safety is more important. The Bestival Bugle was a free newsletter that was handed out which told you what was happening that day and the time that the special surprise acts were on – Grace Jones and The Specials, I kid you not!
Bestival did bring a few gripes from me. The toilets for one were terrible, there was not enough of them and they were not cleaned as often as would have thought. This was probably down to the weather conditions but even the toilets in the Artist Campsite were disgusting and overflowing. The campsites were also cramped so more space was definitely needed especially as there was a lack of lights to the site, falling into tents seemed to become a weekend sport. The amount of cancellations and changes was a huge annoyance which couldn't be helped although there should have been boards strategically placed around the sites telling people of the changes.
To summarise Bestival I would say it's a festival for all ages who want to have a fun time and forget about real-life for a few days. It's the first festival I have been to where it's not just about the live acts as there is so much to do and alas I missed out on so much too; Rizla Arena, Time for Tease (Burlesque Bar), Jestival (the comedy tent closed due to the weather), Restival (where you could get a massage and kick back) and so much more. This was partly to do with the weather as it did get a bit trying at times and was easier to stay put in one place but it has only made me more determined to return next year and I will hopefully be joined by the sunshine. Long live Bestival.
Reviewed by Emma Halliday
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