Friday 10/09/10 Bestival @ Robin Hill Country Park, Isle Of Wight

Seasoned festival goers will be fully aware that one way to guarantee that any festival sets off on a damp footing is for a series of weather reports to surface in the lead up days declaring that the location is going to be beset with torrential rain for the festivals duration. Bestival, the final major sized festival of summer and one which traditionally draws festival season to a speedy close, has been besieged with such conditions previously and organiser Rob Da Bank, as well as many previous attendees, may have feared a rekindling of 2008’s nightmare mudbath scenario where conditions became so bad that stages began sinking into the ground. But luckily sometimes even the MET’s predictions can be wrong.        

The Isle of Wight is not the easiest of locations to reach; so like some other large festivals the organisers this year saw fit to put on some extra warm up entertainment on the night before to help cut down on the mad rush on the opening day proper; theories are great when they work, not so when they don’t and the travel over for all was riddled with congestion.    
 
The one plus and the big draw on arriving Thursday was one Janelle Monae, protégé of Outkast’s Big Boi, and an artist already loved by the broadsheets for her Prince influenced high class pop that maybe won’t see her speeding to the top of the charts but will definitely turn up in many end of year critic polls.  

If Thursday served as a brief starter, Friday is when the full flavoured meal kicked in and presented itself. With the mainstage starting early, radio friendly pop-rapstar Example actively encouraged the youthful crowd to bounce between such staples as ‘Won’t Go quietly’ and the anthemic ‘Kickstarts’. While later in the day and across site on the futuristic looking Spider stage; Gangsta-rapper Giggs who is often painted as being a danger to society by operation Trident plays a set that is both terribly safe and takes several steps towards being light-weight.     

PHOTOS: Bestival 2010: The Best Bits In Photos.

Before The xx won the Mercury prize; it was almost blatantly obvious that their set was going to be one of the main pulls of the entire weekend, so after the win it came as a big surprise that they were gracing the tented second stage in the early evening. As people descended over to the area and squeezed into tight spaces to the soundtrack of icy detached vocals accompanied by a lazily lush backing. The trio’s captivating performance for their final festival appearance of the year served as a good festival send off as they prepare to make their second record.     
 
At the start of each festival season there is a loud moan emitted from a hefty sized portion of indier-than-thou people over the current state of festival headliners; but the performance of one Dizzee Rascal gave a solid indication that he wants to fill that void. Having moved away from his grime roots in order to become an all out pop superstar, his setlist stuck firmly to the songs that will please a mass audience – in essence it is a greatest hits set that is as vibrant as the techni-colour confetti shot out of cannons at the culmination of his set.        

Bestival has a habit of choosing unexpected guests to add additional flavour to those artists on the festival merry-go-round for the duration of the season. The appearance of Children’s TV favourite Rolf Harris on Saturday's schedule may have had some attending out of pure curiosity but for many his wobble board assisted set that included such songs as ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Stairway to Heaven’ served as a welcome bit of light hearted relief. Darwin Deez may not have such props to aid his performance but what he does have is a good ear for a catchy melody and his infectious set of upbeat indie pop tunes and synchronised dance routines help brighten up a day that is not adverse from suffering the odd rain shower. Uffie on the other hand is one artist that is not in the party spirit and infact arrives at her night-time big top performance with a heavily loaded ego. Her stroppy demeanour and continuous pleas for the audience “to get more into it” would make it easy to assume that she has had a string of top-ten bothering chart hits and does nothing to endear her to an already confused audience.  

With the fancy dress theme selected for this year being fantasy; it seemed only natural that The Flaming Lips would be chosen to headline the day in which the costume parade should take place. With many of the audience still dressed up, Wayne Coyne and co emerge onto the stage and burst into musical life only for the singer to soon enter into a large inflatable plastic ball and roll out onto the audience like a large excited hamster. The Flaming Lips are not a conventional band but their fun spirited series of oddly themed songs such as ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robot’ and ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ have a magical resonance, and tonight's renditions are only further enhanced by various vibrant onstage explosions. 

PHOTOS: The Fantasy Freaks Of Bestival 2010.

This years Sunday line up could have been billed as the ‘looking back’ day seeing as the majority of those on the main stage could be classified as nostalgic acts.  Yet this term could also be stretched to cover the appearance of GMTV’s Lycra clad Mr Motivator who graces the stage in the early afternoon to lead everyone through an  exercise regime to help work out those tight aches and pains from excessive drinking and stiff night-time sleeping conditions.

Later on morose Eighties indie-gods Echo and The Bunnymen saw fit to play a greatest hits set that enticed the first real mass sing-a-long of the weekend before  Nile Rodgers and Chic laid out a disco flavoured set that saw them roll out a few standards that the young will only have been exposed to at family gatherings. 

The festival then took a swing to the modern with Chase & Status showcasing a punching energy driven set before established headliners The Prodigy played a high energy career spanning set that saw Maxim and Keith leap round the stage like possessed men and which further cemented their reputation of being one of the best live bands currently in existence.  

Bestival may be the last festival in the calendar year, but on all other fronts it is challenging for first place.    

Bestival 2010 - The Best Bits