Ventnor Blog

Like last year, come to VentnorBlog for the first news about Bestival.

We’ve seen the line up, and boy will you be excited. We’d love to tell you now, but have promised not to … until Midnight.

Tune back at Midnight tonight for the line up of this year’s Bestival.

It’s with sadness that we receive the following police press release - and it was done on valentines day too. Ed

Officers are appealing for information following an incident of criminal damage at Robin Hill, Arreton.

Sometime between 6pm on Thursday, 14 February and 7.10am on Friday, February 15 a group of offenders caused considerable damage to the country park.
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It’s been a bonkers year for Rob and Josie da Bank and their partners Ziggy and John Hughes, with the Best Medium Sized Festival award under their belts (or perhaps on the mantlepiece might be more comfortable) for the third time, they’re looking forward to Bestival 2008 as well as their new sister festival, Camp Bestival in Lulworth Cove next July.
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Yes folks, Bestival managed to pick up the Best Medium Sized Festival Award last night at the UK Festival Awards ceremony in London Town.

Three years in a row! Congratulations to everyone involved.

Accolades like this, can only further the great work that Bestival does in attracting people to the Island, which always results in a massive boost to the local economy.

We’ll have more details to bring you later, including news that The Levellers picked up the ‘Best Feelgood Act’ award.

If you’re a Bestival lover and once a year just isn’t enough to satisfy your thirst, get a load of this.

Clearly organising the best festival of the year is not enough for those busy bees at Bestival HQ, because they’ve gone and cooked up a whole new festival which will take place during over the weekend of 18, 19, 20 July next year at the wonderfully beautiful setting of Lulworth Cove.
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Fellow Bestival goers, if you haven’t already casted your vote in the UK Festival Awards make sure you do so before Sunday.

Bestival have been nominated for a plethora of awards including …..

Best Medium Sized Festival, the Fan-Friendly Festival Award and the amazing DJ Yoda for Best Dance Act.

[Image courtesy of Ben Haldenby]

Our lovely friends over at Bestival HQ have just let us in on a great competition they are running at the moment.

As it’s starting to get chilly, they want to give us Bestival lovers the chance to win a hand-crafted Alpaca wool Bestival cardigan, scarf or hat, courtesy of the rather excellent Folk Clothing label!

They’ve got one cardigan up for grabs, plus three sets of scarves and hats for runners up, and all you gotta do to be in with a chance, is answer the following teaser:
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If Bestival seems like an age ago, get a load of this from our friends at Rizla.

They’ve put together a brilliant selection of footage shot around the Rizla stage over the Bestival weekend.

It provides hard proof that the DJs have just as much fun as the punters - take a look at these guys, what fantastic smiles they’re wearing.
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This audio recording is a slice of the conversation that we had with Asa at his house a week or so back.

It starts with a bit of background as to the series of happy coincidences that fell into place, that worked to get Asa to Bestival.

Listen on the eight minute podcast below and find out how Asa managed to jump the queue to get into Bestival before The Levellers; got to meet The Beastie Boys backstage; had a bunch of Wight Trash T-shirts enthusiastically grabbed off him by one of the Beasties and had a close encounter with Suggs from Madness.

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We’ve nothing for respect for the 12 people who swam to Bestival this year, we found it hard enough to put up our tent!

One of the swimmers, Kate Spicer, has a piece in The Sunday Times today about her experiences.

Her driver? “the purest embodiment of [her] train/cane, spa/bar, healthy/hedonistic lifestyle,” illustrating the bi-polar existence of much of today’s 1960’s+ children of today. Clearly she’s a practised practitioner.
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You all know how much we love Bestival (97 posts and counting), but just how much do you love it?

Now’s your chance to say by voting in the UK Festival Awards. Bestival have been nominated for the following:

Best Medium Sized Festival
Best Lineup
Fan-Friendly Festival Award
Family Festival Award
Best Party Arena - for Samsung Big Top
Innovation Award - for CloakVroom - mobile cloakroom facility (it was brilliant)
Best Headline Act - for Primal Scream (where are the Beastie Boys????)
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Just a quick note to let you know about some podcasts and videos from Bestival 2007 that are now available online.

Video
The BBC Introducing tent was an excellent addition to the Bestival this year, showcasing some of the best Island talent, including the fabulous Jackson Analogue.
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If you were planning to get your early bird ticket this afternoon, bad luck because every single one of the 5000 tickets have been sold, with 3,000 of them going to Islanders.

The fact that so many Islanders chose to buy their tickets now, rather than wait for Islanders tickets which are normally released in March, proves testament to how impressed people have been by the festival.

Well done to Rob Da Bank and the entire Bestival team for the continuing success of the best festival of the year. As the Beastie Boys said on Sunday afternoon, “there’s a reason why they call it Bestival”.

More Bestival news coming your way (just to cheer you up Louis).

If you didn’t go to Bestival this year and are curious to see what it’s like, why not stay up late tonight and switch the box onto Channel 4.

CC-Lab were filming at Bestival over the weekend and have three shows scheduled for this weekend, just after midnight tonight, tomorrow and Sunday.
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Yes folks, you’ve barely had a chance to unpack your sleeping bag and get through your fancy dress washing, but from one minute past midnight tonight, if you dig around for your credit card, you can secure your tickets for next years Bestival.

This years Bestival, which was jam packed with music, comedy, art and a great deal of fun, sold out four months before the festival.

So if you want to make sure that you’ll be enjoying the best festival of all next year, count up your pennies and book your tickets tomorrow.
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Last week, two of our readers were made very happy when they discovered that after a little bit of creative work, they’d won a ticket to Bestival 2007.

One of the winners, Mike Osborne from up north in Porchfield, has been kind enough to share his experience of Bestival with us and here’s what he had to say.

I arrived on site early evening, and excitedly went off to find my pre-pitched tent (cheers Tim) and experience the warm fuzzy feeling that only standing at the top of the Bestival, looking out with beer in hand, across a sea of equally happy people can bring.

After getting lost in the campsite looking for said tent we cracked open another beer and relaxed. This was it. The beginnings of three days of letting go and having a damn good time.

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As we all know, Bestival finished today, as people dragged their tired, but happy arses up the hill to the car park.

This is just a quick post to say what a brilliant time we all had. Top people, excellent acts - a splendid time was had by all.

The quote from the Beastie Boys, “There’s a reason it’s called Bestival,” says it all. They said this and other very complimentary things during their set of mostly mellow vibes that they played on Sunday afternoon. More details to follow.

Thanks to everyone who made it happen, and a special big thank you to Airon who made the whole thing go just as smoothly as it could have gone.

(Interesting to experiment with Twitter (see right sidebar), but the mobile ran out of power, and we couldn’t post too often. Also interesting to find how hard it is to use a mobile keypad to do the updates!)

Sunday evening. Fun a plenty has been had at the brilliant Bestival. Thanks to everyone who put it together. Many happy punters.

The Beasties are ruling the place. The audience is in the palm of their hands.

Just saw We Are Performance play at teh BBC Intro tent. Amazing energy. This is completely what a good festival sound be about - witnessing new talent,

It’s getting cold, so time to head back to the tent and get more clothes on.

The fancy parade was a great success. The sun coming out in support.

Some great outfits coming out at Bestival now. Many people have made loads of effort. Done some chats and photos for later publication.

The Chemicals are playing their encore. Everyone has taken off with them.

The Chemical Brothers stroll on stage. Anticipation is high.