This year’s Bestival was held on a sunny weekend from September 4-7 at Robin Hill Country Park located on Isle of Wight. Rob da Bank’s annual fete was four days of music and mayhem with acts ranging from Outkast and Major Lazer to Foals, Chic and Bonobo.
EDM is taking a foot hold everywhere and the genre made its presence known at Bestival. The usually eclectic UK festival that began in 2004 had been generally been built on electronic music, but this year saw a decline in indie-rock acts on the bill. Interestingly enough, the hippies, crustsies and rock heads who were prominent in recent editions seemed to disappear. Nonetheless, happy smiling faces were in abundance.
This year’s theme was desert island disco with the introduction of the world’s largest disco ball, an idea kicked off by disco legend Nile Rodgers of Chic, who also headlined the main stage on Sunday night.
Bestival is without a doubt a festival built around electronic music and this year went into overdrive, with Disclosure, Basement Jaxx, SBTRKT and La Roux being some of the bigger names of recent times. Underground house and techno was well represented, with up-and-coming acts such as Blonde, Bondax and Shift K3y features along with Sven Väth, Chase & Status, Annie Mac, Dusky, Green Velvet and Gorgon City, to name only a few.
Ten years strong and now attracting 60,000 people, Bestival still manages to keep its friendly, eccentric atmosphere. Bestival goes that little bit further to create a weekend that will linger in the memory, and Bestival 2015 has a lot to live up to.
Images for Big Shot by Sharon Alboni