- How much you're likely to enjoy Bestival depends on how appealing you find the following scenarios:
-Sipping a pint of ale in a pub staffed by dwarves.
-Dancing the Funky Chicken with a lycra-clad TV presenter from the early '90's.
-Giving Public Enemy the Black Power salute while standing in a crowd of Freddy Mercury impersonators.
-Getting drunk on cider and putting on a wig.
If you think any of that sounds like a laugh, then you'll probably get along well with Bestival's mix of music and multi-coloured shenanigans. That's because, as good as the lineups at Bestival are, it's an event that's all about the "experience." That may be a horrible cliché, but it's an appropriate one for a festival that draws a crowd that spends as much time planning their fancy dress as working out which acts they want to watch.
Bestival's annual fancy dress theme—this year's being "Rockstars, Popstars and Divas"—was adopted with gusto by the festival masses. Rob Da Bank, the event's head honcho, would be a rich man if he had a pound for every girl who turned up as Amy Winehouse. Among the more orthodox outfit choices hid some pretty great visual gags. "Why is that man dressed as a cockroach with a Ford badge around his neck? Oh, he's '80s soul crooner Roachford."
Photo credit: iwight.com
Friday set the tone for the weekend with a mix of reverent nostalgia and cutting edge sounds. Early on, former Beach Boy Brian Wilson only occasionally joined in during a set showcasing his most popular works, allowing a backing band to do most of the heavy lifting. Public Enemy, with each member now aged over 50, rattled through some of their most iconic hits with commendable vigour. At times, however, the performance felt disjointed from the rappers' onetime revolutionary messages—especially with Flava Flav relentlessly plugging his new autobiography and Twitter account. Canadian duo Chromeo, however, did a much better job of getting the Bestival main stage going. Their brand of retro tinged electro-funk may verge on being cheesy at times, but the fact they always have the crowd chanting their name at the end of their slot gives you an idea of how well they are suited to large crowds.
Away from the main stage, London-based producer Duffstep managed to belie his odd stage name by offering up a set of cultured, bass-driven house music. The presence of Jodeci's "Freakin' You" halfway through a set of bubbling, Joy Orbison-eque beats was one of the days highlights. Jackmaster's Numbers crew later provided a similar mixed bag of garage and house in a battle royale that saw at least three DJs literally fighting over the decks. It may have been a little rough around the edges, but a rewind-filled hit parade of UKG classics midway through seemed to be exactly what the crowd at the RBMA stage wanted to hear.
Saturday saw the roots reggae of Toots & The Maytals, goth pop of The Cure and macho disco of The Village People all featured on the main stage—the latter of which were worth seeing just to experience a middle-aged Native American chief attempt, and fail, a complicated flag dance routine in the gusty British weather. These pop leanings were offset nicely with more credible, but still fun DJ sets from the likes of Claude VonStroke, Bok Bok and A-Trak. The undoubted highlight of the day, however, came from David Rodigan.
Rodigan is totally inimitable. What other DJ can reach into their bag and pull out personal versions of tracks by artists as wide as King Tubby, Shaggy and Breakage? More than this though, through his mid-set adlibs, he would completely re-contextualise records; thus the appearance of Jimmy Cliff's "You Can Get It If You Really Want" minutes after a weighty dubstep banger makes perfect sense. Like all great storytellers, you know when Rodigan gets on the mic and waxes lyrical about his first trip to Kingston in '79, he's told the story a thousand times—but it doesn't make it any less entertaining. With decades of hardcore sound clash experience behind him, Rodigan's still the man that no other DJ would want to go head-to-head with at a festival.
Photo credit: iwight.com
Historically, some of the best action at Bestival has been off the beaten track, and this year was no different. If you entered an unassuming photo booth opposite the RBMA stage, you could push back the sidewall to reveal a completely secret arena hidden under a canopy. Although a low-key affair, the music on offer here was as good as any other part of the entire site. SBTRKT, for example, offered a soulful and energy-charged live performance that was easily comparable in quality to his one in the Big Top tent. These kind of hidden bonuses are exactly the kind of thing that make Bestival such an enjoyable event.
Sunday's finale saw some of the best, and worst, music of the weekend in the Bollywood tent. Mike Pickering, the man who forced the pop dance shame of M People upon the British public, played a set packed with thumping piano anthems, the likes of which I'd assumed died out some time ago. With the funky house peaking to almost unbearable levels and people still sporting their pop star-related fancy dress, the Bollywood tent quickly began to resemble the world's worst celeb hangout. Thankfully, Tensnake's ensuing set quickly established some equilibrium. Cycling through a set of discoid goodness, Marco Niemerski showed why he's been such a force in electronic music throughout the past few years by serving up a spellbinding performance. When the guitar licks of "Holding Back My Love" emerged, there wasn't a face in the room left without a grin. The appearance of "Coma Cat" midway through even had the shirtless dudes that had been gurning to Mike Pickering back up on their feet for five minutes.
Another of the day's highlights came from DJ Shadow. Not only was his mix of instrumental hip-hop, drum & bass and highly technical scratch skills some of the music best suited to Bestival's huge Big Top tent, his light show is mindblowing. A description will probably not do the show justice, but, to put it simply, Shadow played inside a morphing white ball that constantly changed throughout the show. At one point, the ball turned into an eye, staring out at the crowd, the next a picture of electronic equipment was whizzing around at what seemed like 2,000 RPM. All the while projections in the background changed the whole stage's perspective, making you feel, at times, like your head was inside some kind of drum & bass gyroscope.
With the festival climaxing on various stages with avant-garde pop of Bjork, the crowd-pleasing dance of Fatboy Slim and the boompty-jack of Derrick Carter, Bestival guaranteed a big finish no matter what stage you ended up at. Yet, despite that, it's probably the sight of thousands of garishly dressed festival goers and countless moments of silliness that will continue to provide the event's most enduring memories.