Ventnor Blog

With a huge question mark hanging over the likelihood of Amy Winehouse headlining at Bestival this Saturday night - after failing to turn up at the Rock En Seine Festival in Paris this weekend - Rob Da Bank has assured Bestival goers that he has a great fall back band shoved up his sleeve.

Terry Hall was interviewed by BBC Radio London back earlier in the year and confirmed that the band were reforming to play a UK festival in September 2008.

Step forward Bestival?

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It’s competition time at VentnorBlog again and we’re very excited to be able to offer you a pair of Bestival 2008 tickets.

These puppies are like gold dust at the moment and given the number of people who have asked us whether we know of anyone selling tix, we’re sure this competition is going to be very popular.

Given that the Bestival gates open on Thursday at noon, and that so many people are keen to get their hands on these beauties, we’re setting a limited period in which to enter the comp.

Come back to VB after 12pm tomorrow (Tuesday) and we’ll give you the question. You have to have your answer in before 6pm on Tuesday to qualify.

The Winner will be announced at 7pm that evening.

We had no idea it was happening again this year as all has been quite on the ‘Swim to Bestival’ front, but we’ve just heard from Bestival HQ that once again, twelve braves souls will test their indurance skills and swim from Gosport to Ryde next week.

The Bestival lovers who swim for charity, Hularama, last year swam 3-½ miles across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, brimming with sea-creatures and heavens know what else, all to get to the festival.

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Yes folks, the dastardly duo have just been confirmed as Friday night headliners for the Big Top at Bestival in two weeks time.

After you’ve set up your camp and got your bearings, make sure you head over to the Big Top for what’s promised to be a bonkers set by none other than the Dub Pistols.

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It might have seemed like October already this week with the stormy weather, but it is in fact still a couple of months away. Something you can look forward to doing in October but plan now, is taking part in the Wight Walking Weekend.

As part of the Isle of Wight Walking Festival, this October sees nearly 50 accompanied and guided walks, take place on the Wight.

There’ll even be the ‘world-famous’ speed-dating walk, so if you haven’t taken part before and are looking for an interesting way to meet other single people, make sure you book onto this one. There have been many relationships borne out of the walks, including marriages.

We have over 500 miles of footpaths on the Wight and 60 miles of Heritage World-class Coastline.

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With Bestival 2008 just a couple of weeks away, we thought we’d give you a little reminder of the fun you can expect to have this year.

Shot last year for VentnorBlog by the Spanish DJ, Lucho Limpo, this meander through the crowds at Bestival gives a great, unpolished account of the diversity of sights and sounds that can be found at the award winning Best Medium Festival, Bestival.

Grab yourself a cup of tea, put your feet up for five minutes and enjoy ….

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After the Ventnor Town Council meeting last night we caught up with members of the public who had asked questions of the Town Council, in response to letters published in the SW Chronicle regarding a booking from the organisers of the Jazz Festival for April 2009 to be held at the Winter Gardens.

One such person was John Wortham, a man who has been fighting the corner of creditors for three years.

He originally got involved in the saga as musician friends of his, Julian Mark Stringle and Digby Fairweather had to wait eight months for payment from the organisers.

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At a heavily-attended meeting of the Ventnor Town Council tonight, the town councillors unanimously voted to not allow current Jazz festival organisers, Phillip Snellen and Geri Ward, to hire the town’s Winter Gardens in April 2009.

Many of the 24 members of the public attending were representing people who were still owed money by a number of companies operated by Snellen and Ward from previous Jazz Festivals and the Folk and Blues Festival.

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Thanks to George for sending through results of the Carnival Darts Comp that took place last Thursday night. Ed

A good crowd turned up to support carnival darts at The Rose Inn on Thursday evening.

It was good to see locals and holiday makers enjoying themselves and the whole evening had a friendly feel.

The semi-finals were between Mike and Rita versus Spinky and Fiona, with Mike and Rita going through to the final after a close match.

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Here’s another late addition to the Bestival line-up that caught or attention.

The Fairey Band are nine times National Champion Brass Band of Great Britain and have picked up the British Open Champions a mere 16 times.

In three weeks time, they’ll be dishing out their acclaimed Acid Brass set of Acid House cover versions live on stage.

Expect to hear such delights as Voodoo Ray by A Guy Called Gerald, The Groove That Won’t Stop by Kevin Saunderson, Cubik by 808 State, What Time Is Love by KLF

More acts have just been confirmed for Bestival 2008.

With just three weeks to go, those busy bees at Bestival HQ are still managing to squeeze in more fabulous acts for you to enjoy at Robin Hill between 5-7 September.

Neon Neon, aka Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) and Boom Bip (aka. Bryan Hollon) say that when they played Glastonbury earlier in the summer, it was one of the only times the sun came out that weekend.

Don’t worry lads, the sun _always_ shines at Bestival. We look forward to seeing this duo, especially as John Peel likened Boom Bip to a “modern day Captain Beefheart”.

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Don’t forget it’s that time of year again when thousands of people descend upon the fields near Newchurch for the annual Garlic Festival.

Each year, there are, what seems like hundreds of stalls and marquees (300 this year) offering local produce and services, as well as all day entertainment.

From 10am on Saturday morning until 6pm and the same times the following day you can enjoy all the fun of the Garlic Festival, with blast-from-the-past musical highlights in the form of Alvin Stardust and Doctor and the Medics.

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Don’t forget the Ventnor Carnival tomorrow.

The children’s carnival sets off at 2pm from Dudley Road and (weather permitting) will proceed up Pier Street, Church Street, Belgrave Road and onto Ventnor Park. If raining, the parade will go to the Winter Gardens instead.

Do come out and cheer on the kids - they go to great lengths to dress up and have fun.

Look out some children from Niton Primary School who will be raising awareness for the Barely Born appeal and will also be appearing in the evening procession along with a Barely Born branded car.

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In a surprise turn of events, Chair of the Winter Gardens Management Committee (WGMC), Maureen Cawley, has announced in a letter in the South Wight Chronicle, that they are to suspend confirmation of the Ventnor Winter Gardens as a venue for the 2009 Jazz Festival.

On 14 July, the majority of the WGMC voted to allow for it to be used.

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Here’s a little recap of events around Ventnor’s Winter Gardens Management Committee (WGMC) and their recent acceptance of the booking to use the Winter Gardens for the Ventnor Jazz Festival 2009.

Maureen Cawley, the Chair of the WGMC, gave assurances on 5 May that the Winter Gardens Committee would only let the Jazz Festival go ahead at the WG if …

1) there was no adverse publicity following this years event
2) and all creditors being paid in full

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At the last meeting of Ventnor Town Council, just after the public were excluded from the Winter Gardens Management Committee, the next agenda item to be discussed was the 2009 Jazz Festival - if they would sanction the hire of the Winter Gardens.

You might remember the black cloud over the festival with unpaid debts from both the 2007 Jazz Festival and the 2007 Folk and Blues Festival.

Chair of the Winter Gardens Management Committee (WGMC), Maureen Cawley, had agreed to pencil the 2009 festival in to take place at the Winter Gardens, subject to there being no negative publicity and all debts paid by September 2008.

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With news just in from Bestival HQ that they’ve just sold out of weekend tickets for Camp Bestival, anyone who entered our Camp Bestival ticket comp but weren’t lucky enough to be picked out of the hat might be interested in this comp being run by The Times.

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If you’re not heading off the Wight this weekend for Camp Bestival, but are hankering for a festival atmosphere, why not head down South to Niton where you’ll find the FONStival.

FONS-ti-what? You might be asking. Well FONS stands for ‘Friends Of Niton School’ and in a continuation of their fund raising efforts, this weekend Niton Primary School will be hosting their very own music festival.

As well as some of our most talented musicians performing, there’ll also be tons of stuff to keep the nippers happy.

They can take part in a carnival workshop making headdresses and masks, test out their monkey bar skills on the adventure trial, bounce for free on the blow up castle and much more.

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By the end of next week, the School holidays will be upon us and that means Carnival season on the Isle of Wight will be in full swing.

Festivities for Ventnor Carnival stretch across seven days in August, with activities taking place on most days which residents and holidaymakers can enjoy.

It kicks off with a barn dance at the Winter Gardens on Sunday 10th August. There’ll be the usual dog show on the Tuesday, obviously main carnival and children’s carnival takes place on the Wednesday.

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This time next week, lucky Camp Bestival ticket holders will be either dancing their socks off at Balaeric Bollywood, laughing their heads off at the Laughter Library or maybe still banging in their tent pegs.

Bestival HQ tell us there are just 200 tickets left for this first time boutique festival in the beautiful grounds of Lulworth Castle.

There’ll be 10,000 festival goers descending upon Durdle Door next Friday. If you want to join them get your tickets before they all go.

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With the festival season in full swing (despite the wind and rain) we thought you might be interested in an article that appears in the Guardian today.

The subject, Festival Food offerings, is something close to our hearts (we love good grub).

It’s fab to our friends over at Bestival HQ scoring so highly in their great choices of food vendors.

Organiser Ziggy Gilsenan tells the Guardian

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The time has come to announce the lucky winner of a family ticket for Camp Bestival which takes place in just over a week’s time.

Two adults and two under 16s will be enjoying free entrance and camping courtesy of those lovely folk at Bestival HQ.

The response to this competition has been unprecedented. We’ve had entries from all over the Island as well as the mainland, including such far flung places as London and Cardiff. (more…)

It’s great to see the VentnorBlog Bestival 2007 video scoring high on the Bestival MySpace page.

Filmed and edited by Lucho Limpo, it’s an ideal window into the wonderful world of Bestival for Bestival virgins and a lovely stumble down memory lane for those who’ve been up close and personal with the Best Medium Sized Festival going.

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THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.

Those generous folk at Bestival HQ have given us a family ticket for the forthcoming Camp Bestival to give away.

As usual, the competition is open to all readers both on the Wight and ‘overseas’ (that mean you mainlanders) and given the festival takes place in just under three weeks, we’ll kick the comp off today and give you until Monday to send in your answers.

For the chance to win two adult tickets plus two under 16 passes all you have to do is answer the following question. (more…)

Camp Bestival is promising even more fun for the kids and big kids next month when Coldcut legend Jon More will be serving up a unique set of children’s classics.

Take a trip back memory lane as he dishes up Gospel and Hip Hop versions of timeless treats, including a reggae version of ‘This Old Man’!

Commenting on the bambino beats outing Jon said

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