REVIEW: CAMP BESTIVAL 2011
Dorset’s divine coastal region beckoned as the Lulworth Castle Estate played host to Camp Bestival. The sister festival of the Isle of Wight’s Bestival, this weekend focused on the younger audiences, mainly attracting families and swarms of fun hungry teens.
Navigating through fields of enormous luxury tents, all seeming equipped with a full range of home comforts from tables to toilet booths, we make our way to the Magic Meadow. One of the many kid friendly areas, this year sees the welcome addition of the Monkey Shoulder bar whose swings and hammock allow the little ones to cavort while grown up indulge in a little nerve tonic to drown out the noise.
Opting for tea and toast, we ploughed past the infamous yellow letters, around 8 feet tall, which this year spelled ‘Hi De Hi’ and ‘Ho De Ho’ respectively. This twee little call is tannoyed across the site at various intervals to add to the holiday camp feel. Informative and weirdly enjoyable.
Caitlin Rose starts off the Friday lunchtime music with her contemporary country. The set seems a little misplaced amongst a field of sober parents, as she sings songs of lost love and booze. ‘New York’ and ‘Own Side Now’ are received well, if only for the excellent vocal delivery and steel slide guitar sounds, but the nuances of beauties like ‘ For the Rabbits’ and ‘Sinful Wishing Well’ are lost in the mid afternoon warmth. Overall, a bit lacklustre.
Dodging the terrible scrum of the Zingzilla’s performance, we headed to the Upper Kids Garden for an excellent circus skills class, one of many hosted by the Big Top Mania group. This is also a good spot to grab some food, whether you want chips or some ethically sourced fish from the River Cottage camp, while the children bounce themselves senseless on an inflatablecastle or learn poi or diablo. We also grabbed some costumes courtesy of Smiffys and join the legions of Fair Maids. Monks and Knights all looking a bit daft in aid of this year’s Medieval fancy dress theme.
Clare Maguire drew us away from the beautiful views and back to the main stage for her flamboyant set of singalong anthems for the recently dumped. Dressed in an impressive red cape and belting out numbers Cher would be proud of, she certainly had the crowd behind her. ‘Save the Last Dance’ and ‘Shield and the Sword’ were met with fervent middle class bopping and swaying, but the stand out track has to be the new ‘Mess You Around’ which nicely showcases Maguire s impressive pipes.
Those old enough to remember new wave when it was new girded their loins in readiness for Blondie’s headlining set and pack out the Castle Field to capacity. Known to have knocked out a few dubious sets in recent years, Debbie Harry and co deliver a pleasing and sometimes surprising set. The classics are there ‘Union City Blue’, ‘Dreaming’ and ‘Atomic’ open the evening, ‘Hanging on the Telephone’ and a personal favourite ‘Call Me’ follow with the full backing and singing along of the crowd. Unbelievably, they cover ‘You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party’ and pull it off with aplomb, the wonderful ‘One Way or Another’ closes the set.
Saturday began with a quick shot of Jaipur Kawa Brass, who are both wonderful to watch and loud enough to exacerbate even the mildest hangover. A spot of jousting follows courtesy of Horses Impossible in the Castle Field, added to by the abundance of Medieval finery and brilliant bits where the knights knock over their squires with their lances. Sadly, no real bloodshed.
Escaping the unbearable shouting and innuendo of Dick and Dom, we take to the Big Top for the delectable Kathryn Williams. Her velvety tones remain unchanged throughout the years and songs like ‘Little Black Numbers’ are delivered effortlessly alongside more complex, looped numbers. She engaged with the crowd, full of charm and humour and thankfully treats newcomers to her cover of Leonard Cohen’s classic ‘Hallelujah’. Sadly Newton Faulkner followed with his own drab brand of advert friendly guitar twiddling. He enraptured the audience with his infamous cover of Massive Attack’s ‘Tear-drop’ and ends the set with a skin crawling, guitar bashing, shameless murdering of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Sunday held a collection of much more adult friendly acts starting with Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds. Its unusual to think that an alternative comedian can produce such a range of well made folk covers, but he pulls it off. Highlights include Kraftwerk’s ‘The Model’ and ‘White Riot’ from the Clash. The Selecter followed with a rousing set, fronted by the stunning and ever impressive Pauline Black and Gaps Hendrickson. Black, finely tailored in pristine white suit and trilby hat, maintains a fine vocal while Hendrickson still delivers his lyrics with skill and integrity. A moving tribute to Amy Winehouse, they covered ‘Back to Black’ with intelligence and sensitivity, and the brilliant ‘On My Radio’ makes one dream come true for this humble reviewer.
Easy Star All Stars drew us back to the Main Stage with their mix of original reggae compositions and finely worked remastering of such classics as Dark Side of the Moon and OK Computer. Never heard Radiodread? You’re missing out. Who knows what it is about this warm, inclusive band of musicians, but they celebrated the presence of kids in the audience and deliver ‘Climbing Up the Walls’ by Radiohead all in one seamless set. Camp Bestival stalwart Beardyman started the Sunday round up with his one man band act. With enough chaos pads to choke a computer geeks he revs the crowd up to a cheerful level, some exuberant youth scrabbling to see his set manage to topple a flag pole, little daredevils. After giving up our spare empty cans and cups to the ever present hoards of youths collecting them for 10p a pop, we take to our feet and squash in for the festivals headliners.
Sticking mainly to the Screamadelica play list, Primal Scream opened with the ever welcome Moving On Up into darker territory such a Slip Inside This House, regaining the vibe for Loaded. Come Together illuminates the stage with psychedelic splendour, and Jail Bird showcases the indie rock sound this band can still produce after all these years. Closing with the ever popular Rocks, we bid the band and the festival a fond farewell as the immense firework displays spills out over Lulworth castle
Words and photo: Helen Brown
