The Bestival

Robin Hill Countryside Adventure Park took on a revolutionary new spin over the weekend of the 8th-10th September when it became the sight of ‘boutique festival fun and frolics’ in hosting the last UK festival of 2006.

The Bestival burst into town and made its presence felt in the woodland valley located in the heart of the Island near Downend and Newport. Within minutes of entering the site it was easy to see why this event was voted Best Medium-Sized Festival and Most Innovative Festival at the UK Festival Awards in 2005 – quite an achievement considering The Bestival has only now been established for just three years!

“3 days of boutique festival fun for happy campers, 8 stages of live music, cabaret, DJ’s and strange happenings”

The Bestival is the second largest music festival (following June’s Isle of Wight Festival) to be held on the Island and this year it boasted a musical mix of bands and DJ’s spanning a period of decades so wide; festival-goers were quite literally spoilt for choice.

Besides the main stage, tents such as the Bollywood Bar, The Groovy Movie Picture House, The Blue Pavilion, X-Box Lost & Sound, the Download Tent and Miss Moon’s Portrait Parlour provided additional sources of entertainment. Trade stands varied from the Henna Body Art Co. Bubble inc. Festival Ukes, Lotus Moon, Mad Hatters, The Dressing Up Box, Festigear and the Cosy Camper.

There was no shortage of places to stop-off for a bite to eat either! La Grande Bouffe, The Big Nosh, Pancake Shop, Theatre of Cuisine, Hot & Dishy, Tiny Tea Tent, Flaming Cactus (Mexican food), The Shigha Lounge, Healthy Mediterranean, It’s Smokin!, Thai Café and Fresh Caribbean Cuisine (to name but a few) were all present to cater for the vast majority of tastes.

There was absolutely no excuse for fans not to ‘smile…’

On Friday Gogol Bordello took to the main stage and used their boundless energy to get Bestival-goers in the mood for a weekend of partying, with a rendition of their underground hit 'Start Wearing Purple,' which sparked a series of mass dancing.

Saturday saw recent chart-topper Lily Allen conforming with her many fans by performing her hit ‘Smile' in full fancy-dress, and a couple of hours later Caribbean/Latin American band Kid Creole and the Coconuts delighted the crowd when they played renowned eighties tracks ‘Stool Pigeon’ and ‘Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy.’

It was then left to legendary artists Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys to fill the widely anticipated evening headline slot. The boys wasted no time in captivating the crowd with live renditions of hits spanning their 25 year career, including ‘West End Girls,’ ‘It’s a Sin,’ ‘Opportunities,’ ‘Where the Streets Have No Name,’ ‘Go West’ and the more recent release ‘I’m With Stupid.’

Breaking the records, the rules …and the charts!

If all of this wasn’t enough, this year’s Bestival also broke the world record for the most people to be wearing fancy-dress in one place in the whole world… ever!
With the hope of building upon the success of last year's Cowboys and Indians theme, a circus theme was originally suggested by organisers for The Bestival this year. However, this idea was brought to an abrupt halt when imminent festival-goers voiced concerns about 'Coulrophobia’ – a phobia of clowns.

Whilst Bestival crowds scrambled to raid the fancy-dress tents made specially available on-site to allow them to find the weirdest and wackiest attire they could possibly adorn; it seemed that someone forgot to tell Sunday’s headline act, the Scissor Sisters, about the slight change of plan!

The hugely popular American band The Scissor Sisters who have shot to fame during the past two years, played their only confirmed UK summer date at The Bestival and made a staggering entrance on stage to their hit song ‘Laura’ …dressed as clowns!

Earlier on in the day the band had learned their latest single ‘I Don't Feel Like Dancin’ had reached No. 1 in the UK charts and they celebrated by inspiring a packed field of 15,000 fans to adopt some of their energetic vibes which (somewhat ironically) got them dancing to an electrifying rendition of the feel-good hit. As well as filling their set with other catchy tunes like ‘Take Your Mama Out’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’ the Scissor Sisters also took this opportunity to unveil previously unheard songs from their forthcoming album 'Ta Dah' that is to be released on Monday 18th September. For their encore, the band performed their classic track ‘Filthy/Gorgeous’ along with giant 10-foot high clown backing dancers whilst singer Jake Shears dramatically covered himself in fake blood!

Send in the clowns for a theatrical finale

The Bestival closed with what was without a doubt one of the most spectacular festival stage shows the Island has ever seen. The theatrical lights, make-up, costumes and energy of the performers all made for a fantastic end to a superb year of live music on the Isle of Wight.

Unlike many other events of a similar nature, the Bestival has a very unique feel about it; much of which is due to the laid-back and relaxed atmosphere that can be felt wherever on the site visitors chose to reside. It was plain to see that people attended the Bestival to have a genuinely good time and sufficed to say, they were in no way disappointed!

The Bestival was brought to you by Sunday Best in conjunction with partners Get Involved and the innovative promoters behind these companies; Rob da Bank (Radio 1 DJ) and John Hughes (music manager and head of Get Involved).


iwight.com have a superb selection of over 100 photographs which capture the spirit of the entire Bestival weekend - please make sure you visit our online gallery for an unbeatable insight into Bestival 2006!!

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