Camp Bestival

What T in the Park, Isle of Wight and Latitude had in bucketloads,
Camp Bestival, the ultimate family festival luckily dodged, thanks to
a timely shift north of the Jet Stream, leaving this part of Dorset to
luxuriate in that rare and precious commodity, a perfect English
summer weekend.

If any festival needs meteorological assistance it’s this one. (Ever
spent time in a tent with teenagers in the rain?) Aimed squarely at
festival goers with a propensity for breeding, the parents and carers
role is akin to that of the ‘domestique’ rider in the Tour de France.
Shepherding their charges from start to finish, supplying them with
the essentials and then leading them out to everything on offer. The
film, circus, dance, cabaret, theatre, music and much, much more.

It really is all about the kids. This is no Reading or Leeds. For the
adults, a twinge of nostalgia with Adam Ant, Kool and the Gang, even
Happy Mondays – booked to appease them for the many hours babysitting
at the tent, with the clowns, in a film or from the ritual of pulling
the pimped up trolley.

For the acts that manage to straddle the age divide the reception was
fantastic and this year the two that performed this trick were both
relative newcomers. Hot Chip are a strange bunch. Solid and at first
quite static but once funked up at a steady BPM they cruised along,
readily interchanging instrumentation among the six guys – the female
drummer steering the course – and working up each song into a hypnotic
trance with all sorts of counterpoint riffing, they won over the
field.

The second act and highlight of the festival were undoubtedly two
twenty year olds, the Rizzle Kicks. Bouncing onto stage with an
attitude just the right side of arrogant, their youthful rap connected
with 7 year old Sam and 9 year old Samantha and the willing domestique
on whose shoulders the moshing babes were parked. Highly charged, lots
of audience participation, cool enough to try a cover arranged for the
day, their 45 minutes was a perfect Camp Bestival moment.

The festival is spectacularly well organised. The venue: the
beautifully wooded grounds of Lulworth Castle helps of course, but
someone has been able to create the right vibe and this is vital for
the hundreds of crew, thousands of festival goers and even the humble
security guard on the gate of our far-off camping field.

Lulworth Castle, Dorset, 26-29 July 2012

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