Bestival

The second Bestival festival kicked off on Friday night with thousands of Besti-goers arriving at the woodland adventure park for the three day party.

After heading into the campsite to get the pressing matter of putting tents up out the way and grabbing an appropriate festival hat, we put our dancing legs on and it was time to join the festivities.

Heading into the festival is best described as entering an adventure land with surprises around every corner from a casino, inflatable church, nomadic sauna and eight foot musical sea-shells to a hidden disco.

With so much to get round, we decided the best plan for manoeuvres was to split up and wander randomly round the sights and sounds seeing who could find the Hidden Disco first!

Besti-goers

With its brightly coloured brollies, twirling and glittering in the sunshine and some funky disco and breakbeat blasting out from its doorways, the Bollywood Bar with Krafty Cuts at the decks mixing in rock classics like AC/DC’s Back in Black with Get Your Freak on was the perfect way to kick of the afternoon’s grass-cutting.

Taking a wander round to the JD Lounge The Research with their 80’s tinged, jerky electronica, random rhythms and soft harmonies were going down a treat with the crowd. Then, heading round the corner to the 24-hour café huge bean bags were the perfect place to watch three-piece Subgiant at work belting out their mix of reggae beats layered with some impressive scratching.

On the main stage the Cuban Brothers were compering, but it’s was a less Latin and more Northern persona today. As we were introduced to Kevin Peters, the male majorette, it feels uncannily like we’ve stepped into an episode of Phoenix Nights. They kept the crowd entertained dancing to ‘ironic’ classics such as Club Tropicana until the Two Lone Swordsmen were ready.

It’s a full band accompanying the techno duo, and they turn in a New Order-style performance that seems just a bit too up tempo for a sunny Friday afternoon. It’s not the only odd scheduling moment of the weekend.

Mylo

More appropriate is the Dub and Reggae which kicked off the early evening on the main stage with The Dub Pistols and Terry Hall firing up the dancing with the crowd getting plenty of pelvic action underway to their ska-edged tunes. They were followed by Dreadzone who brought their mix of classic Dub which is given a new lease of life with some dance/trance and MC-ing mixed in.

The place was totally packed out for the first of the evening’s headliners – Mylo – who does not disappoint. Already classic tunes such as Doctor the Pressure and Into My Arms got an ecstatic response from the crowd. The Scottish ‘Saviour of Dance’ alternated between guitar and decks for a one of the performances of the festival.

British Sea Power

Meanwhile, inside the Big Top which resembled a cowboy set with two wooden saloons on either side and a washing line filled with corsets and frilly knickers strung across it, nature lovers, British Sea Power wearing their trademark woolly jumpers, hats and scarves where belting out their eclectic indie rock tunes to a packed crowd who were dancing madly clutching an array of branches and stuffed birds.

Finishing off the night on the main stage were The Magic Numbers who pulled in a huge crowd to hear their sunny, American-style easy-rock tunes, Forever Lost was their peak tune with the crowd singing and clapping along. After the momentum gathered by Mylo their laid-back sound may have given our legs a much needed rest, but they were more of a warm hug and a bright smile and they didn’t really cook up the party spirit.

But the party was still going on elsewhere on the site. In the casino, gamblers exchanged their cash for chips before chancing their arm on roulette or blackjack. And through the back of the casino… the Hidden Disco! The secret seems to have got out, as there’s a steady queue of people waiting to get in, to the tiny overheated room where Ross Allen was playing a hard funk set.

At 3am, the merely keen head to bed, while the truly hardcore headed for the 24 hour café, where the party continued…