The collective consciousness seemed to have selected Bestival as one to go to this year so we all duly trooped off to the Isle of Wight. Overall it was a pretty good weekend though I think it was feeling the weight of numbers moreso this year. With thirty thousand people to get on-site on Friday morning there were big tailbacks. Stupidly we didn't figure that this would be the same on the way out so missed our ferry and ended up stuck for eight hours; not so bad as we went to Butterfly World for a few of them. A lot of effort had gone into making the site look lovely and the music was a whole lot more to my liking than The Big Chill. In fact with the way the Chill was going when I last went two years ago you'd choose Bestival, no contest, it was developing all the same problems as it grew but with the sense that the atmosphere they were trying to promote was at complete odds with their desire to rinse as many people for the price of a ticket as possible. Next year... more festivals of a smaller size.

Eric Kleptone tearing up the House of Bamboo