Bestival Blog

Thursday

I arrived at bestival last night (Wednesday) it feels fairly disconcerting walking through a field that is soon to have tens of thousands of people in. It really is like the calm before the storm. The site looks once again spectacular, a mix of nature, wildlife and the psychedelic.

Its amazing to see the work that goes in to the site just a day before the festival goers arrive. On Thursday I decided to go for a wander before the campers were allowed in. I am situated in a campsite called ducky, now for most people they wont see Ducky as it is good half hour walk to the site. What it does mean however is that you can see a large part of the site just by walking back to your tent. What always baffles me is just how much stuff they manage to cram into the site. Towards the back you have Arcadia a pyrotechnic explosion which is honestly spectacular, and a must if you don’t mind loud noises, during the day in the same area I came across a police van that was having a rave. After a fairly hectic day of toing and froing and getting my bearings  and decided to call it a night to be ready and raring for Friday and of course Florence and the machine.

Friday

It’s Florence and the Mean Machine day and I cannot wait. But before that it’s time for a bit of Prince Charming. Adam Ant walks on stage with the same stage presence that he had all those years ago. He’s also still a fairly natty dresser.

After that I thought I’d potter off towards the roller disco, now there is a sight to behold.

I then checked out the ambient forrest, and time soon gets away with you. I had to go see the XX who were on before Florence. The combined voices of the male and female leads are beautiful and as you can see from their opening track the crowd adored them.

Now onto Florence what can I say bout wow. She can hold that stage like no other with her voice reverberating through the audience. With an orchestra and a fantastic backing group the set was over in an absolute flash. An amazing start to two more days of world class performers.

Saturday

Today is the day of Legends. Sister Sledge, De La Soul and The Earth Wind and Fire Experience, and to top it all off New Order.

But to begin the morning Mr Motivator took to the stage to brush away those Friday cobwebs. There is nothing quite like seeing a man in a unitard getting a slightly worse for wears crowd performing stars jumps, and also rather worryingly the man has never aged.

Onto Sister Sledge what can I say but wow, they’re one of those groups where they can just produce hit after hit and have everyone singing.

New Order is a band that I’ve always wanted to see and Bestival gave me the chance. As a slightly younger gentlemen I never got to see Joy Division so to get see some of those former member perform was a special moment.

That is one thing I would like to highlight about Bestival, it allows you to see legendary acts and acts so new that they are not even signed yet. Obscure acts are side by side with well established and pop acts. Which I feel makes it completely unique. 

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