The Bestival Long Weekender
Let's just get straight down to it, Bestival 2016 was something completely new to me. Thanks to the guys at Get-Involved, I was lucky enough to attend three of this years BESTIVAL events, - Common People, Camp Bestival, and Bestival itself. I don't know what I was really expecting but there were loads of things going on the whole time we were there.
In this post I'll go through a shit tonne of stuff, but I'll mainly focus on the things I find most appealing from my experience at this years event - including Fashion outfits/Camping/Music/Food an the overall experience.
In previous festival posts I've stated out what I got up to day by day at the event, kinda like a little festival diary. Well, Bestial was a whole 4 days of lots of travelling, lots of walking around, lots of booze, a lack of sleep and just none stop giggles so all my days molded into one - but it was bloody good!
Now, word of warning, this post will be a long one, but it'll be filled with funny pictures and just stuff I (probably more than likely not everyone) found interesting and just cool little things for people to know about.
Now that the little introduction-ish is over, let's just straight in!
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My boyfriend and I were kindly given two press tickets to come down to experience The Future at this years Bestival. Michael's a Bestival veteran, this being his third/maybe fourth year. I was a complete Bestival virgin and I didn't know what was coming/had completely the wrong idea but we'll talk about that as we go along.
We headed down super early Thursday morning, we were going to get up at like 5.15am, but over slept and managed to get up, dress, fed and out the door by around 15/20 minutes I think? Our friend Chris joined up for the journey - We like Chris!
We had a long journey ahead of us, We had to get a train from Cardiff, that took us to Portmouth Harbour - with one change on the way. Taking around four hours. We we're all pretty happy as we got on the train, but after an hour or so, tiredness kicks in and it was bedtime for a few hours.
The first leg was pretty each though, we just had to sit there - no messing around, trains weren't over crowded, no delays, plenty of room for our stuff and we loved having the table to sleep on - every little helps! 4 hours later, our train was done!
Once we'd arrived at Portmouth Harbour, the queue for the ferry was just as you stepped off the train. The queue wasn't very long at all from what we could see, but we didn't realise that it went inside the building and around the corner - It was pretty busy, and we had to keep moving closer together to make sure the trains that arrived after us didn't clog up the station. The line moved a lot faster than we thought, I'd say we must have been on the third ferry after we'd arrived? Again, it was very straight forward, we dumped our gear on the floor downstairs and headed up to the deck to see the sea.
A little windy, but helped to wake me up a bit. Not a bad little 30 minute boat ride really.
The boys had perked up a little bit, Michael doing the Brock squint again....
Now to the dreaded bit. The long as wait for the bus that takes you to the actual festival site. The queue went on for what seemed like forever. Honestly, you couldn't see where it finished for a good hour or so. We stood waiting for our bus for around 2 hours before we managed to get on one. The nearest toilets were at the cafe by the pier, so we couldn't jump out of the line to use them.. If you know me at all, this was heart breaking for my bladder. I hadn't drank anything, not even water since the night before. This was the worst bit of the journey by far - but then I can compensate because I couldn't suggest any way of making it any easier, it's just a busy place to be!
Our bus trip made up for it though, we went whizzing around the island in an open top bus, Isle of Wight is so beautiful! It'd be great for a little getaway in the future. I didn't see any chains, everything looked to be independent/family ran businesses including pubs/farms/boutiques. It was like something out of a movie. I spotted some signs for town names that were familiar from when I visited the island at the age of 8, which was a nice little memory rejogger for me.
The bus took around half hour to reach the site, simple directions to the entrance, a short walk across a little field and then just line up in another massive queue. At this point I felt absolutely gutted, another few hours of standing around... Thankfully! We were able to grab our press bands from the Box Office and walk straight through! (Sorry Chris) The staff were super friendly, told us exactly what to do and where to go - top guys once again!
So, now we're finally in, 9 hours after leaving Cardiff - but we're here!
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Camping
Camping was split into a number of areas at this years Bestival - Orange/Black/Quiet/Boutique/VIP/Artists
We headed to Black camping first because we heard through the grape vine that it was the place to be, and by god it was! The place was ram packed! Ideally, we needed a space for my tent, Chris's tent and 3 more spaces for his friend. This was unrealistic, we couldn't even find find a decent space for our tent - the first gap we found.. we were told they were 'waiting' for a friend - so we moved over a bit on the path and were about to set up... when some bloke asked up 'Do you do ket?'.. exactly what I thought the festival was going to be - full of bloody loonies, I'm not going to be able to move without someone breathing drugs in my direction.. I'm all for people to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't effect others. but this bloke bugged me from the get go.
I replied no and he told me 'not to camp there then.' What a wankerrrrrrr. So we moved because If we stayed I would of killed him by the end of the weekend haha.
I asked one of the guys from the Festaxi where the best place to camp was, or ANYWHERE with room that wasn't full of bellends! He sent us to Quiet Camp - which was yellow camp last year I think? I loved our camp! but I think it's because it was quiet haha, I can party until dawn, but when it's bed time, it's bed time - I'm a party pooper soz! #sorrynotsorry.
We managed to bag a good circular area until Chris joined us, we had plenty of room for our tents, and our new friends when they arrived.
We made some new friends who also joined our little circle, Callum and Jon were also part of the press covering the event and fit into our little family straight away!
It was quite a walk from the stages, but simple to find. I think most of the official campsites were a while away from the event, but it made sleeping nice and easy... but if you wanted to, you could hear from the tent, I was so tired one night I was falling asleep waiting for one of the girls outside the toilets but I wanted to hear Katy B again - Luckily I could hear her from our tent. BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!
Apparently, the campsite was a lot smaller this year, with the Prepitched tents taking up a large area at near the entrance. This should be looked into for next year - because Black camp was stupidly busy, ,and there was nowhere else to go apart from quiet camp, which is fine- again, I LOVED QUIET CAMP!
Noone bugged me, noone broke or stole anything, noone was super loud and everyone was really welcoming around us. 4.9/5 - 0.1 taken away for the distance away from the stages - but then it wouldn't be so quiet so I'm just being picky.
#TEAMYELLOW
(Super dark Polaroid taken by the super heroes behind us.)
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Food
Now here's another important bit, food! Now I'm not a fussy eater, but I also am. I don't eat meat - but don't mind products that include meat (so I'll have gravy/gelatin ect)
So far, at CP and CB I'm been more than fine with the choices, and once again I was not let down!
We had all the classics from every festival - Such as the Flaming Cactus (My favs!) and I <3 Sausage, but also tried out a few little gems that were hidden.
Thankfully, On the first night I was invited the The Mix Kitchen - Unpredictable Summer run by Co-Op. These guys were life savers, we were so tired from the journey down - we wouldn't of grabbed anything else. Co - Op upped the game! The chefs came out with a list of stuff they could make for us, but we could pretty much ask for anything and they'd sort it out.
I had the most amazing dish ever, I couldn't tell you exactly what it was called, but it had couscous, shredded carrots, beetroot, lentils, salad leaves, cheese, potatoe, peppers and some sort of wizards sauce that bonded everything together! It was truely amazing, and my bowl was filled! It took forever to get through.
Free champagne and water was also a bonus! Winner winner!
As you can see, Michael is a bit happier now he's been fed and watered. Michael has a specially made chicken and noodles bowl, He was best pleased! haha.
Lease flattering photo of either of us, but we also caught up with another Chris we met at Camp Bestival! We chatted for a VERY long time.
We had a lot of snacks in our tent, I'm a sugar freak so packed sweeties for breakfast every day - Not the most nutritional sorry but gets me up in the morning!
For lunch on Friday I had a sweet chili and halloumi cheese wrap, and Mike bought some sort of chicken wrap. I waited a long time for it, at least 15 minutes. I was absolutely starving to so it felt like forever! I guess the cheese just wouldn't cook. I was super excited to tuck in, but when I did, a volcano of sweet chili sauce erupted into my mouth. I'm only a sensitive little flower anyways, but this was something else! I spent the next 10 minutes starving my little butt off just starring into my food, wanting to eat it but soo scared to in case I die (not being over dramatic at all) The wrap itself was great though, the bread was oven cooked so nice and crisp with a herby layer to add texture.
BUT! Praise the lord, The Flaming Cactus sorted me out once again! Even though I didn't buy my wrap from their store, they covered it in smooth cucumber yogurt and fixed my wrap! It was gone within a second. Thanks again for saving the day!
For dinner, I spotted a Risotto stand, I love Risotto - it's so easy to make, soaks up all flavors and I've never been anywhere that doesn't have a vegetarian equivalent. I bought the large mushroom risotto from Risotto2Go. The portion was huge! It was super creamy, soft and fluffy. With three different types of mushrooms, herbs and some beautiful cheese thrown in I couldn't think of anything better.
It fed Me, Michael and everyone else tried a bite too.
I had four of these while at Bestival - pretty bad because I didn't check out many other places, but once you like something, you like it!
(MORE RISOTTO! and Mikes Burger from the place next door on Sunday)
Saturday the heavens opened and it was the biggest, muddiest mess I'd ever seen in my life, but we made the long trek purely just to fill our bellies at Flaming Cactus - We ordered exactly the same as we did at Camp Bestival, and my Burrito obsession has stuck. To good to wait, luckily someone snapped a photo of us because we completely forgot while we tucked into our foodporn. We ate two of these, one for dinner and one for tea. Only fair seeing they saved my food the day before. LOVE YOU GUYS!
Sunday was our 'day of rest' not really... we stayed until the early hours - but food wise our bodies were so tired and full of booze and burrito that we took it pretty easy.
Here Michael had a pulled pork burger (back to his normal Camp Bestival routine) from The Burger Co - While I didn't take a photo, but had chips with plenty of ketchup. And then we shared another round of Risotto for dinner - with a box of nachos to see the night through.
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WHATS ABOUT?
I was so grateful to be invited to the press viewing of Samsung's Hypercube - Now it does look like something out of the sci-fi movie Cube, but inside is The Future (ah see what I did there?)
Samsung had teamed up with the Rock band Biffy Clyro to create a new Virtual Reality experience for everyone to enjoy. This is the next state of technology and it was executed so well!
Once inside, the dark cube was light up by lines of blue tablets and headsets, it kinda reminded me of Tron?
We had to follow the instructions on the tablet, and then put the VR headset and headphones on and just enjoy the ride.
The VR experience was a Biffy Clyro music video, but with a 360o perspective. if I were to look straight forward I'd see the area Biffy were performing in, but If i turned my head I could see everything that was inside the room they had recorded it in? I don't even know how to explain, but I could see everything that the band could see, and probably a bit more! If I turned 180o from where I started I had fireworks firing at me at one point!
I loved it! It wasn't what I was expecting at all but I'm super excited for this technology to become every day! It's amazing and if you get the chance to experience any VR soon, please do it! You won't regret it!
Magically Woods
We found the woods while drunkenly walking back from the Space port one night and decided we were in no right state to explore it so would come back the next day. I'm so glad we did! It was full of lots of things to do, such as listening to inspiring talks at the Bestival University, chilling in hammocks, playing in the park and hitting some cool bars with live music. Here's my favourite parts.
The forest had loads of little things hidden around it, sculptures in the trees, sensory areas and little statues just laying about.
My favourite book growing us was Tin Tin - Even managed to rack up a £60 fine from the Library because I wouldn't return it haha.
This pretty cool bridge looked beautiful all day and night, I wanted to take a shower in the stream but noone would join me.
The bridge was decorated with spot lights and these pieces of fabric hanging down - I don't know why, but it looked super pretty!
Over this little oriental bridge was a little quiet bar, which had live acoustic music playing all day by indie artists.
Again, no idea what this area actually was, but it had a load of artsy features throughout the path, This one matched my outfit so I stuck a pose.
and we found a play ground! I had way too much fun in here, and Michael got a bit carried away and managed to swing me into the elephant - #gameover
We also found a cool little jazz spot! You walked through a shipping crate into a giant teepee which had jazz music playing all day. When we arrived there was someone playing the piano with a few couples dancing in the middle. It first caught my eye because it's called The Blind Tiger - which is one of my favourite clubs in Newport, Wales. I thought it might had been a chain, but it was even better!
On our way back to camp after spending a little time in Blind Tiger, we spotted some giant bubbles floating around and a few kids following them, so we thought we'd follow suit because, you know, bubbles!?
Michael got a little close to the action as you can see here;
Some of the bubbles were bigger than us, it was nice to see something aimed mainly towards kids, but fun for all.
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