Isle of Wight News on Ventnor Blog

Along with the bands, there’s a few more DJs announced today.

From the old school there is the legend that is Arthur Baker – Originally a New York DJ and record producer, he was the man that helped New Order discover dance, by taking them around the NY club scene and producing the all-time classic track Confusion.

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Bestival have been holding off announcing their Sunday night headliner for this year’s Bestival over the past few weeks, but reveal today that it will be none other than those bad boys of punk, The Prodigy.

Rob tells us that The Prodigy have been an important part of his record collection over the years, so securing them to play at Bestival must have been a highlight for his scheduling this year.

Apparently this is the last gig the band are planning for sometime, so catch them while you can.

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Rob da Bank tells us this morning that news of Howard Jones being confirmed to play Bestival 2010 has been leaked through the musician’s Website.

Hailing from Southampton, Howard Jones may be best remembered by many for his work in the 1980s, but his discography reveals that he’s been busy creating music through each of the decades since, most recently releasing his Ordinary Heroes album in 2009.

As revealed on his official Website, he’ll join the likes of Gil Scott Heron, Roxy Music, and Echo and the Bunnymen at the festival in Robin Hill Country Park in September.

If you live on the Isle of Wight, this Saturday is your chance to get slightly discounted Islander tickets for Bestival 2010.

For one day only, you’ll be able to buy tickets without paying any commission or booking fees.

Judging from our archives, it looks as though this special offer took a holiday last year, so good to see it back. After all, a small part of Bestival’s success can be attributed to those who supported it as it was growing.

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Rather than give you a whole load of blah on which DJs are playing at Bestival this year, we’ve gathered some videos …

Mylo
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Anyone who has been to Bestival over the years will testify to the amazing effort thousands of the people go when it comes to fancy dress (like the guy pictured here from last year).

This is not just a matter of buying a wig and throwing on some odd looking clothes (although that always works well if you’ve left it too late).

Those who go to great lengths and spend many months creating their masterpieces are always grateful for an early heads up.

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Another newly confirmed act for this year’s Bestival is none other than that lovable Bristolian, Tricky.

He’s produced some trailblazing work over the years.

Rumoured to be working with Massive Attack again (who played Bestival last year) on a new project, we could be in for a glimpse of something pretty bonkers on the Island this September.

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Bestival HQ have been working like beavers to secure the next round of acts for September’s music festival at Robin Hill on the Isle of Wight.

Their hard work has most definitely paid off, as they now confirm that the legendary Bryan Ferry will be bringing Roxy Music to main stage on Saturday.

Roxy Music are thought of as one of the most influential bands of the last 40 years. The attention to detail they gave to their music was mirrored throughout their videos, album covers and promotional material. We’re sure they’ll be bringing plenty of style to Bestival this year.

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Alongside the announcement of Richie Hawtin at Bestival, we hear that The XX and Fever Ray will be playing too.

Full Bestival lineup on Events on the Wight

Richie Hawtin playing live as Plastikman in the The Big Top has just been announced on Resident Advisor.

Full Bestival lineup on Events on the Wight

It seems that this year really is the war of the Isle of Wight music festivals.

In previous years IW Festival and Bestival have always made their lineup announcements on different dates, sometimes weeks apart, but this year sees Bestival following IW Festival within hours of making their announcements.

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In a change to the usual way that Bestival acts are announced, this year the bods at Bestival HQ have decided to announce a whole raft of acts confirmed for the September festival at Robin Hill, instead of giving us the usual headliners first.

You know that you can rely on Rob da Bank to deliver the goods as far as live music and DJ selection is concerned and the first list of acts announced today should have you all rushing out to buy your tickets.

There’s no clue as to which acts are headlining on which day, so there might some more surprises to come yet.

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Readers might remember the Red Hot Talent comp run last year by Red Funnel which resulted in a number of Islanders going through to the finals.

The competition returns this year and adds another feather to its bow.

The aim of the comp is to reveal the South’s hidden talent and is open to all sorts of disciplines, from singers to belly dancers and everything in between.

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Winners of this year’s Bestival Band Competition, Arcade Eden, are counting down the days until the release of their hotly tipped single, ‘Black Light’.

A week on Monday sees the release of the duo from Shanklin’s next single which is being described as ‘An appealing mix of big beats, snappy choruses and raw energy’.

Apparently the release has already been picked up by a major UK online retailer who will be using it during their catwalk shows at the ‘Clothes Show Live’ at Birmingham’s NEC.

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Congratulations to the Bestival team, who are probably feeling pretty pleased today, as last night they picked up a couple of awards at the UK Festival Awards ceremony.

As well as walking off with best ‘Medium Sized Festival’ for Bestival 09, their sister festival in Lulworth in Dorset, Camp Bestival, bagged ‘Best Family Festival’.

Florence and The Machine who appeared at Bestival and Camp Bestival picked up ‘Best Breakthrough Act’.

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It’s that time of year when as kids we used to start thinking about which Annual we were going to add to our Christmas lists. Would it be Blue Peter, Tiswas or Beano?

A few years have passed since then and we haven’t given much thought to the wonderful Annuals for a while, that is, until we heard about a new book called Festival Annual.

If you’re a festival goer, young or old, you’re going to love this new glossy book which features twenty-one festivals from 2009.

Vibrant photography
This collection of vibrant photography and words will guide you through the sun, the rain, the mud and more.

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If you appreciate a bit of rural hip hop, then you might want to head over to Born in a Barn’s MySpace page and indulge in their latest offerings.

The lads, along with Ambush Tactics, have been working hard mastering several new tracks with some fantastic observations of life on and off the Island.

If you caught them at Bestival this year, lucky you – we were gutted to have missed them as they always put on a storming show.

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The Two Tims present a TV travel show on (ABC) Australia Broadcast Corporation, the down under version of the BBC.

We originally met them in at Bestival while they were going around capturing footage for the new travel show.

Yesterday as White Air, now shifted from the Isle of Wight to Brighton, we bumped into them again – and took the opportunity to have a chat to them.

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Next batch of photo from Bestival. These are from the Saturday where we toodled around, sat on the ground and listened to a few bands.

A few of those band pictured are Lucky Elephant, Wight Light Orchestra and Guy Page Trio.

Photos after the jump.

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Kraftwerk headlined Saturday night at Bestival. It was a gig of a lifetime – and we loved it. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Why so much enthusiasm? Well, Kraftwerk’s influence is hard to over-estimate.

If that’s news to you, here’s a little background.

It’s arguable that if Kraftwerk hadn’t ever existed, over half of the bands that played at Bestival might not have existed or sounded like they do today.

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One of the things that make Bestival special is the fancy dress. It makes people behave differently and for those there, briefly suspends reality.

This year some people had gone to some extraordinary lengths to create their outfits – not only that, but they suffered for their art, as they walked around in them during the boiling hot sun of Saturday,

After the jump are some of the ones that caught our eye …

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If you didn’t catch Annie Leonard’s shots from Bestival earlier in the week, make sure you check them out (and see if you can spot yourself).

Coming up now are her shots of some of the acts on the main stage and in DJ tents.

The gallery starts with Florence and the Machine, when Annie was fortunate enough to be handpicked onto the stage by organisers. We’re sure you’ll agree she captured some great shots.

We love the intimacy of the DJ shots and the gallery ends with Ventnor’s very own Flippington who took to the main stage on Sunday afternoon.

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We’re organising our Bestival photos in a different way to Annie’s – we’re doing them by the day. Below are Friday’s shots.

The first photo should give you an indication as to the number of people that were there. It was taken just as the light was fading, travelling from the camp site through the main entrance.

The band on stage is MGMT and there are couple of shots of adoring fans prior to that.

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15 year old Annie Leonard from Ventnor was shooting for VB at Bestival once again last weekend.

Anyone who went along to the festival will probably agree that shooting the main stage from the pit would have been a difficult task for even a seasoned photographer (given how high up the stage was) but Annie managed to capture some great shots (these ones to follow).

In the meantime check out her fabulous shots taken of very happy festival goers around the site.

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If you’re not able to come to Bestival or if you’re not quite here yet and you can keep an eye on what people are thinking about it by simply watching the window below.

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