Bestival 2011

Every year at Bestival there's something random that makes Bestival, well, Bestival.  This year I had to wait until the Sunday.  Noah and the Whale were about to play the Big Top (they were excellent by the way) and Lucy and I were at the bar near by.  Suddenly the PA for the Big Top (it might have been part of Noah and the Whale set, I have no clue) started playing an orchestral version of Bohemian Rhapsody.  Cue mass sing along and me insisting we wander over.  Singing along Queen, feet caked in mud, shouldn't be magical, but it was.

As ever Bestival was about laughing hard as much as it was about the acts and we did that in spades all weekend.  Music wise it felt like a massive step up from last year, particularly on the main stage.  Pendulum I could have lived without but The Cure were wonderful on Saturday and Bjork, the following night, was utterly bonkers and equally brilliant.  My highlight (and everyone will have a different one) was PJ Harvey.  She stole it for me with a mesmerising performance and looked just beautiful.

Massive thanks to everyone that we spent the weekend with but particularly my sis and Marc for putting us all up and keeping the beer and tea flowing.  Mostly though, thank you Swan.

Bestival - Day 3

The Sun did it's shining thing, the kids came up for a few hours and the grown ups sat down, a lot.  Sunday at Bestival is for chilling out, and that's exactly what we did.  The little band stand on the hill provided the bulk of our entertainment for the day although I did get to hear one of my favourite songs ever performed live in the afternoon.  Marc Almond singing Say Hello, Wave Goodbye was one of those perfect Bestival moments, stumbled on by accident during a trip to the bar.

Bestival - Day 2

Overnight rain had turned the green fields of Robin Hill into a mud fest, but to be honest it barely mattered.  The weather stayed dry all afternoon, so the mud remained a comedy side show to fancy dress day, turning anyone in a white outfit brown. 

Bestival - Day 1

Friday night was a typical crazy start to a festival weekend.  A lost bag, lost girls and The XX proving way too popular to be in the Big Top.

The Fire Field provided @Sister_Ledge with the thrill ride of losing a bag then getting it back via a kindly Bestival goer with heart of gold who used the iPhone within the bag to contact us and allow us to retrieve it.  The girls also used the Fire Field to climb up on the stage and do some dancing while the lads hung back on the rug and supped the beer.  Good times.

Bestival

If I can, I'll post from my sisters on the mornings after the night before.  If not, I'll see you on the other side.  Ledger Mix Tape goes up tonight and if you're on the twitter I'll be all over it, as long as there's a 3G signal on the site.

Have a great weekend while I'm back in my natural environment.*

*Off my tits, in a field, dancing.

Bestival Pics

Apologies, one last post on Bestival and then breaking Blog news later. The links below will take you to my pictures from the weekend. The one above is my favourite as the scene around this guy was just utter pandemonium but with his crazy wig he just looked like an ocean of calm in the chaos of the Fire Field.

Bestival Day One

Bestival Day Two

Bestival Day Three

Bestival Day 3 The Herbal Furballs

What another brilliant day we had. 

Back in love with Bestival, big time.

I went up earlier yesterday and spent an hour or so just wandering and chilling in the Fire Field.  Just so weird after dancing like loons in there the night before to see it all calm and peaceful.

Then I hooked up with Zo for a few hours and her lovely one year old.  Was great to catch up and have our Mini tweetup as had been a while since we'd had a chance for a gossip.  We figured out that it was about 18 years since we'd been a couple.  Scary. 

It was a lot quieter up at the site and it was nice to crash by the bar and have some space to chill out once Sister Ledge and her hubby pitched up at around four.  I was already pretty gone by the time they arrived but we soon had them catching me up.

We stayed at the main stage for most of the day watching Doves, Fleet Foxes and Elbow.  Doves were superb, it was great to see one of my fave bands live for the first time.  The Foxes were ok, but they'd be better suited to a smaller venue or an earlier afternoon slot.  

Elbow though were fantastic.  They worked the crowd and were clearly loving the chance to play and end the last big Festival of the summer.  'One Day Like This,' closed the set and was about as appropriate a song as you could have had to end what had been a perfect weekend.

Massive thanks to Sister Ledge, Marc, Stu, Gos, Lol, Zo, Isobelle, Zo's mate, and all the crazy random strangers we met on the way.  Brilliant, brilliant weekend, much love for the Bestival.  Rarely have I giggled so often and so much. 

'Throw those curtains wide, one day like this a year would see me right.'

(I will attempt to not sound like such a hippy from here on out.)

Oh, we also figured out that I'm head mental...

8)

Bestival Day 2

You gotta be impressed with this, 8.53am and up? Yep. Totally buzzing from a brilliant night. The day wasn't bad either.

We got dressed up in our Star Wars out fits and headed up to the site for about 3pm. A few glasses of wine and bottles of beer before hand settled ever ones heads after the day before. Some of of the costumes people had were just amazing, I'll post up all my pics tomorrow when I get back home. Makes you want to make more of an effort next year... although we looked pretty cool.

Acts wise this was never gonna be my day. Sister Ledge (as we are now referring to my sister) watched Mika and Lilly Allen but I snuck off to meet up with Gos and Lol and watched a bit of Jack Penate in the big top. He was preceded by a burlesque dancer stripping. That's Bestival for you. Totally random. She was hot though.

We went over to the back field for the last few hours and I had the best time I've ever had at Bestival. I'm not into Dance music. I sort of hate it. But when it's really really loud and absolutely everyone around you is going mad for it you can't help but get caught up in it. Great times. I danced like I was a kid again, Sister Ledge and I cracking up at each others efforts.

We even got an open top bus back home.

Tonight it's The Fleet Foxes, Doves and Elbow. Awesome.

I've managed to tweet away too. The one joy of my non-iphone being that even without 3G I can still pick up the tinternet.

Right, time for a cup of tea before we do it all again...

Bestival Day 1

Ok so I know your impressed. I'm up, it's 8.35am and I'm typing.

I'm as shocked as you are I promise.

First day of Bestival is done and wow what a great day it was. Band wise I saw Florence and the Machine, MGMT and Massive Attack. Unfortunately the sound quality is pretty poor, they've moved the main stage to a more central location on the site and there's just too much going on to hear the headline acts properly. However I can confirm that Florence is hot.

It doesn't really matter about the sound at Bestival anyway, there's just so much else going on and it's always heartwarming how many strangers just start chatting to you. Hello random American!!

Today is fancy dress dress day. Pics up tomorrow morning if I'm in a fit state to blog...

We love Bestival because it is a mini hippy paradise and it feels less commercialised than the Isle of Wight Festival. It just has such a great vibe to it.

Yesterday was great fun, we ate, drank and danced our way to an awesome day. Today promises to be even better. Sweet.

Bestival Weekend

Last time I went to a festival (the awesomeness that was the Isle of Wight 2009) I sort of promised daily blog posts during the course of the weekend.  This was a bit of an error on my part and never got even close to happening.

Now whilst I'm not saying there won't be blog posts I think it's best to say there probably won't be any until Monday.  That's right you guys can have a little break from my ramblings.

However you can still follow all the action on twitter as long as they've sorted a decent 3G signal at Bestival.

Oh and remember last nights Tomb Raider post (thanks for all the feedback twitter, some of you got quite misty eyed) here's the Epilogue.

Spaced

Cheers for the link @domcoke.  I would have embedded it but they've taken the embed code away.  Arse.

Have a great weekend all, see you on the other side. 8)

Three weeks and not a clue what I'm wearing.

In a little under three weeks I will be attending Bestival and I haven't got a stitch to wear.

Obviously I have some suitably indie garb for the Friday and Sunday but Saturday is fancy dress day. The theme is 'space'. I am not good with paper mache so the planned giant R2D2 costume is a no go. So dear readers what the hell am I gonna go as? I need something cheap yet visually brilliant, am I asking too much? I'm attending with a small group, one of whom is my sister so we can consider a theme. A cheap, simple theme, that will not break the bank. As per, you can forward ideas to me on twitter (don't worry about the current lock down, if you follow me I'll follow back), on the facebook page, on my actual facebook page and by email. If you are hugely creative and want to make me something I will shower you with praise on the blog and make you very well know (to about 40 people....).

Bestival is such a great Festival but I do have weird memories. My first one was an absolute cracker. First flush of a new relationship, good friends and good times. I can barely remember who played it was just a lovely three days. A year later that relationship had just crumbled and I made a bit of a fool of myself. 'A bit of a fool of myself,' understates quite how bad it was... it was bad. How I got up on the Saturday morning is still something of a mystery to all who attended. Last year I took a skip year and avoided three days of rain and the Isle of Wight's premier country park (Robin Hill - Bestivals location, fact fans) turning into a giant mud wrestling extravaganza. So this year I'm dipping my foot back into the water with something amounting to trepidation. I aim to not get quite so drunk (I probably will get reasonably close) but most of all I am looking forward to watching Florence and the Machine who's album has been a bit of a soundtrack to my summer. It's actually going to be a bit odd going to a Festival without my hedonistic head on but weirdly I'm looking forward to that. Am I growing up? Hell no. Well maybe a lil bit. Shhh though ok?

So anyway, as is my want with the blog, I've gone off on a ramble again, but I do want/need some suggestions. Thanks in advance.

GC x

Bestival

I'm going.  Yay!!!

Couldn't not go really could I? With that line up.  I pray for for sunshine and good times etc etc.

So who's playing at this Bestival Gray?  I hear you ask.

Well, there's the Fleet Foxes.  There's MGMT.  There's The Doves.  There's Massive Attack.  And there's Elbow.  That's frickin' awesome that is.

For one of the best websites ever created for a festival have a look here:

http://www.bestival.net/

Now to worry about the Fancy Dress.

In further news I am now playing Hangman on twitter... next, 'eye spy'!