Bestival 2005

by Joanna Orland

Bestival. With a name like that comes great responsibility. So did the second annual festival cut it? Let’s weigh the pros and cons of the self-insinuating best festival of all, shall we?

The Goods:

1. Awesome idea to make the Saturday night of a festival a Fancy Dress party. The theme – Cowboys and Indians. It went well beyond that to have vaudevillian Indians, naked cowboys and some really strange creative costumes that I’ll be having nightmares about for years to come.

2. Soulwax. Like Kraftwerk meets uh.. uh… dunno. Maybe just a bit like Kraftwerk. Impressive sound, great matching outfits, nice stuff boys.

3. 2ManyDjs – technically a spin off of Soulwax. Had the crowd dancing their pants off.

4. The Toboggan Run. I actually said out loud, “Weeeeeeeee”

5. The Vibe. Chilled. Very chilled. Dude.

6. Deadbeats. No, not the ones in the crowd (as many as there were), but the band. We met them in the pub and they guilted us into watching their set. Great stuff. They’re headed for the big time.

7. Chai Tea. And organic food. And non-organic food. And crepes. Mmm… Crepes.

8. The random in between acts on the main stage. Ie the wind quartet covering The White Stripes, the all female high school choir doing The Beach Boys, etc.

The Bads:

1. The Weather. Beyond the promoter’s control, the weather was shite. Grey skies, cold damp air, overnight rain (at least got to wear my wellies one last time this summer)…

2. The bands that played on Sunday morning. It must’ve been a competition who could sing the most offkey. The spell was broken with the arrival of VHS or Beta. Those boys rock the block as a cross between The Cure and The Rapture. Rock On.

3. The Line Up. It wasn’t really a bad line up, but it wasn’t as strong as some of the other festivals this summer. It was refreshing not to see the Kaiser Chiefs or Stereo Mcs for once, but at the same time it was lacking strong headline acts. Then again, it was more about the vibe anyways.

4. I forgot to bring my fancy dress outfits and accessories. Boo.

The Uglies:

1. The three stupid girls in the tent next to ours. They went on all night about how we invaded their camping circle and blah blah blah. Our supposed invasion is hardly a hardship compared to listening to 3 babbling idiots tell each other the same story over and over again about flying tortoises with a special magic power that is actually the power of having no magic. This was less than amusing. They FINALLY shut up when I popped out of the tent to give them the silent stare of death. Take that you gibbering eternal virgins.

2. And…. Naked Cuban Brothers. Ew.

Overall, Bestival was awesome! Perhaps not the best of the bunch (we are ever spoiled from Roskilde), but a strong contender! Can’t wait til next year (I’ll find a better place to pitch my tent).