Whoa!

Where do I start?

Just arrived back in London (a day late) after an amazing few days at Bestival on the Isle of Wight. You catch a ferry from Southampton to the island, and the ferry goes goes through what apparently is the busiest shipping channel in Europe.

So after some hassles with getting on ferries and finding the site we got to the site and into our camping spot. Nothing I’ve ever been to compares to it, epic is on the only word to describe it. The festival is out in the middle of nowhere on this hilly sort of recreational reserve thing, a massive space with hills and bush walks and of course big open fields. I haven’t been to Splendor in Byron yet but I can’t imagine its this big.

We got there on Friday evening and set up camp in the guest area which was on the top of a hill above the rest of festival grounds. We then cruised down to the main bit, by this time it was dark and seeing the rest of the place from the top of the hill was a sight to be seen. The main music areas were hidden by trees but to the left was a temporary tent city with little street sorta things lit by lanterns. Epic. I tried to get it on the camera but it was too dark and far away.

So we went down the first tent we came across which was the one Crazy P were playing the following night. A nice big space with wicked sound. Drinks and mild dancing followed. We caught Ashley Beedle doing a reggae set then the Nextmen doing their funky hip hop sorta thing. A great way to warm up for the next few days. I went for a cruise and checked out about half of the rest of the site, heard some of Erol Alkan in the sort of electronic tent and drank more. Later on we watched Kelly Polar do their live disco and strings thing and it was pretty dissapointing. good in theory but didnt work at all in a live sense. Which sucked cos I dragged everyone else over there. After that we called it a night and went back to camp.

Saturday we got up mid morning morning and ate, then slept then went and checked out the other areas. The main stage was a massive narrow sort of corridor that opened out into a big area with sense bushland either side. A great setting.

So I’m trying to remember who I saw on the Saturday afternoon but it’s not quite coming to me, so I’ll skip that for the moment. The Crazy P guys did a radio interview in the late afternoon and the rest of our crew (there were 12 of us in total in our little posse) hung out out camp and ate and prepped drinks. At about 7 we got in our costumes as it was costume day. Every single person at the whole festival had made an effort to dress up…well say 95% of people. And it looked absolutely fantastic! Created such a fun positive vibe and everyone was absolutely revelling in it.

OK, I’m to leave it there as I need to go eat. I’m flying solo tonight. Back in at Dan and Sasha’s place in Clapham and going to get get a massive burger at this place down the road that claims to have London’s best burgers, I’ll review that and report back.

Here are some photos.

More to come.