Bestival on The Isle of Wight Festival 2005
Throughout the weekend of 9/10/11 of September, the Isle of Wight played host to a Sunday Best’s now annual 3 day shindig, the Bestival.
Now in its second year, this festival is currated by Sunday Best’s founder and head honcho Rob Da Bank, and reflects the freestyle, anything goes ethos of their record label and events. With appearances by a bewildering array of artists, taking in indie (super furry animals, go team) reggae (lee scratch perry, fat freddies drop) hip hop (Rodney p and skitz) Drum and bass (Fabio and grooverider) and straight up party madness (Cuban brothers), amongst many many more there really was something for all musical tastes.
However this festival is about much more than the music, the site itself is amazing, set in a “country adventure park” complete with enchanted forest, part of the fun of is walking around and seeing what crazy adventures and characters you can meet. The atmosphere of this festival is one of pure fun, as the site of 10.000 festival goers all in fancy dress on the Saturday night of the festival will testify, this is a festival that is designed for silliness and doesn’t take itself too seriously. That’s not to say the production and work that goes on behind the scenes is not spot on, indeed the attention to detail that goes into creating the environments making this festival playground for party people helps to create the wicked atmosphere that pervades throughout….
From the fantastic Bollywood cocktail bar and Big Top arenas which hosted some of the best DJs over the weekend, to the Inflatable church and Women’s Institute tea tent that awaited those who managed to climb the top of the hill or find their way through the enchanted forest.
Musical highlights (for me personally, as there was so much to choose from and such a diverse mix of people that each person would have a completely different set of best bits!)…
- Bugz in the attic - delivering the beats and niceness as always
- Cuban Brothers - playing for the first time with a full live band
- Fat Freddies Drop - sounding effortlessly tight live
- Fabio and Grooverider - drum and bass got the big top seriously jumping
- Sombrero Sound System - Strictly for the Hat-core
- Max Sedgley live - sounds great on vinyl, check the live band!
- Bestival FM - on site radio constantly broadcasting highlights to the festival and beyond. 2-4am in the 24hour Café-consistently holding it down with some heavy dub vibrations.
Non musical highlights:
- Balloons (hee hee)
- Wicked people
- Bollywood Cocktails
- 10.000 raving fancy dress loons
- WI tea tent
- Hidden disco (although this was a little too hidden for me, didn’t find it til the Sunday night!)
- Toboggan rides
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Article by: Paddy Freeform