Bestival — The summer of love

The summer of love

Getting there is an adventure in itself. Many choose to drive, followed by taking the obligatory ferry, and arriving feels like a wonderful light at the end of a metaphorical tunnel. This is Bestival – and its beacon shone brightly on the Isle of Wight. The colourful, imaginative uniqueness that sets it apart from other festivals was set to end the music festival season with a bang.

The 80,000devotees embraced the Summer of Love theme, and the year on year vision of Rob Da Bank to bring a modern music festival that his dream set out to create – a wondrous world of discovery and adventure.

The hedonist, hippie type feel was embraced by all – fun and pleasure was at the forefront and the love was certainly all around – and if there wasn’t enough, the 8 metre high ‘Lovebot’ more than made up for any shortfalls.

Jamie XX, described by Rob Da Bank to have the best album this year – if not the decade, with ‘In Colour’, had the pressure of opening the weekend. Big hitters such as ‘I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)’ and ‘Loud Places’, including ‘All Under One Roof Raving’ supported this statement. The Jacksons brought the love in full flow to the main stage, and received one of the best reactions of the weekend – at their age, anyone would be happy to dance half as good as them. We’ll have some of what they’re having please. Jungle and Jurassic 5 continued the main stage party with joy inducing sets.

It wasn’t just music though in this adventure playground. The Ambient Forest unleashed your inquisitive side, with lots of places to explore – and very random comedy performances, our favourite was ‘Shit Faced Shakespeare’, as you can imagine it was very different to watching Hamlet at the Globe Theatre. The ‘Bestiversity’ had a series of lectures and talks throughout the weekend, and even the WI had a tent (which was permanently rammed) selling tea and cakes of the highest order – naturally.

Shaped like a ship, one of our favourite stages was the Port Stage. It brought a fantastic selection of dance music – namely unsurprisingly massive sets from Four Tet and Mark Ronson. It was the headliners of Missy Elliot and Chemical Brothers though that surpassed even the high expectations set upon them. Opening with ‘Hey Boy, Hey Girl’ the crowd erupted with mad delight for the Chemical Brothers, giant bouncing balls were flung from one end to the other, lights and colours coming in all forms – all amongst a superbly trippy light show to support the music. The set ended with a barrage of light and noise as ‘Galvanise’ closed the performance. It was the unmistakable legend that was Missy Elliot though that provided the ray of sunshine throughout the ever worsening weather. A seasoned performer, she knew how to work the crowd – familiar or not with Missy Elliot, the performance was full energy and swag – ‘Get Ur Freak On’ was madness, ‘Lose Control’ was so good she played it twice, and signed trainers were given to the crowd. This unpredictable headline choice is the epitome of what sets Bestival aside from many other music festivals.

This already sounds like a lot right? It’s never enough. Saturday played host to the huge fancy dress parade full of colour and happiness – some of the costumes were hard to describe using mere words. The Commune, home to flames which shaped a huge hippy flower, gave everyone a fitting finale with an array of fireworks, and a release of love-heart shaped confetti to the tune of ‘All You Need Is Love’. The summer of love was officially over – but what a way to end it.