Bestival Sat & Sun Review

Day 2 at Bestival started off wet and muddy with festival goers sheltering from the rain in the cabaret tent getting a 'set' from Mr Motivator to pep them up. Over on the main stage Rolf Harris brought no Australian sunshine but did perform Tie Me Kangaroo Down TWICE!

 

Later in the afternoon Bob Marley's old mates The Wailers brought the sun out as they played 3 Little Birds. Original member Bunny and a decent band also sang Stir It Up and I Shot The Sherrif with help from the game crowd. Over on the Big Top both Professor Green and Tinie Tempah represented for UK rap while Ellie Goulding brought some needed pop glamour to the festival.

 

Mumford and Sons then came on with their subdued folk- including big single Little Lion Man- as the sun set on Saturday before Roxy Music appeared. Headlining on Sat were The Flaming Lips- who once again proved why their live reputation proceeds them, with spectacular renditions of Yoshimi and The Yeah Song. Fake Blood then rounded the day off with one of the best DJ sets of the weekend on the Arcadia spider, playing bangers including New Order's Blue Monday.

 

On Sunday another old-school act took to the main stage as Chic and frontman Nile Rodgers hit Bestival for the one of the sets of the weekend. The group were ridiculously tight and played their own hits- including Good Times, I Want Your Love and Le Freak- before moving onto tracks produced or written by Nile. That meant we heard Bowie's Let's Dance, Madonna's Like A Virgin and Sister Sledge's We Are Family, making for an unforgettable hour of some of the best pop music from the last 30 years.

 

Fever Ray, indie disco heroes LCD Soundsystem and Fat Freddy's Drop were all hits in the huge Big Top while The Cuban Brothers brought funk, comedy and dancing to the main arena. Chase & Status, plus assorted rappers, played their now well rehearsed live dubstep, breakbeat, hip hop show late in the day.

 

Which was the perfect warm up for MTV's favourite Essex boys- The Prodigy, who are possibly the most reliable festival act around. The three piece played a large cunk of their Invaders Must Die album but it was still great to hear Liam, Keith and Maxim bang out classics like Firestarter, Breath, Out Of Space, Poison and Mindfields as only they can.

 

After that it was just left to a large fireworks display to close Bestival 2010- dubbed 'the year of the fantastic.' And despite a bit of overcrowding and some dodgy weather it more than lived up to that billing. Bring on 2011...