- For its first international edition in Toronto, Bestival—the UK festival founded by Rob Da Bank—had a lot to prove. Taking place over two days on the scenic Toronto Island, Bestival was competing with a number of other larger, better-known events, including NXNE, Digital Dreams, Electric Island and WayHome. Given that Toronto only lifted its ban on outdoor music festivals in recent years, the city has been quick to jump on the hype.
Despite its small lineup (there were more "activities" listed than artists), the festival boasted some promising acts: Caribou, Cassy, DJ Tennis, Daphni, Nicole Moudaber and Jamie xx, to name a few. Although the curation didn’t feel entirely cohesive, it seemed like Bestival had a strong idea of how to appeal to the local crowd. But for reasons still unknown to me, the festival was Bollywood themed. Cultural appropriation in festival culture is an uncomfortable issue, and Bestival had it in spades. There were bindi stations, stages set up like raving Hindu temples, metallic Henna tattoos and giant pink elephant statues. It was an unclear concept, but no one seemed to question it. It was only after the festival that I was told that the UK edition is famous for its fancy-dress themes, but that's still no excuse for young Canadians to don indigenous headdresses and carry tribal staffs affixed with skulls. (I'm still trying to work out what either of those things has to do with Bollywood.)
The entire thing was more of a spectacle than a celebration of music—the abundance of lasers, light shows, smoke displays and pyrotecnics took away from the performances. At Nicole Moudaber's closing set on Friday, for example, the Bollywood backdrop was more a distraction than an embellishment. Jamie xx, whose onstage personality is quieter than most, was dwarfed by the oversize neon temple, while local hero Nathan Barato's funky tech house set, though excellent, felt out of place. The rest of the electronic roster was hit-or-miss: sets from Cashmere Cat, Flosstradamus, Flume and SBTRKT felt lacking in direction. Ultimately, it was the non-electronic acts— Florence And The Machine, Banks, Nas—that stole the show. While I can forgive the festival’s slight lack of organization, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the weekend in general. To sum it up, Bestival Toronto felt like a lot of show for very little tell.