Camp Bestival review – diverse pleasures for ex-ravers and their tots

Lulworth Castle, Dorset
From Ella Eyre to Dick and Dom via climactic dance sets by Clean Bandit and Underworld, the family festival really does have something for everyone


Organised by DJ Rob da Bank, Camp Bestival is the festival for lapsed hedonists and their kids. On Friday Dick and Dom entertain the toddlers while faux-Hispanic mischief-makers the Cuban Brothers please the oldies. As night falls, the site resembles a giant sleepover, all tots in tiger-print onesies (the theme of this eighth Camp Bestival is “goes wild”).

It’s a festival that requires high energy. Despite illness, Professor Green soldiers on, peaky but full of beans. Headliners Clean Bandit maintain the dance pace with their exuberant classical/house hybrid.

Saturday couldn’t be more diverse: George the Poet’s didactic rhymes followed by X Factor rejects Only the Young, for example. Cult early-70s group Cymande are a welcome booking by crate-digging funk-soul brother Da Bank. Alison Moyet is a big draw, singing Yazoo’s Only You and Don’t Go flanked by two male keyboardists, and turning this field in Dorset into a shiny Essex nightclub. Arthur Brown has high billing, considering his last hit was in 1968, yet the 73-year-old godfather of schlock-rock remains a reliably OTT attraction, with his garish get-up, quasi-operatic shrieks and pyrotechnics. His helmet is even set ablaze for a climactic Fire.

Level 42 go down a treat with their slick jazz-funk, and as evening sets in, The Sun Goes Down (Living It Up) is impeccably timed. Kaiser Chiefs are spikier, opening with The Angry Mob, but this isn’t the time or place to proselytise when all anyone wants is I Predict a Riot. Over at the Big Top, Manchester’s 808 State are a revelatory reminder of that city’s futurist imperative. Two members down (Martin Price went awol and DJ Darren Partington was jailed for dealing heroin and crack cocaine), Graham Massey and Andrew Barker – with live bass, guitar, sax and drums – thrill with the machine delirium of Pacific State, Cubik and In Yer Face.

On Sunday, the big pop voices of Ella Henderson and Ella Eyre prove a hit with the teens, while Slaves deliver compact, high-energy agit-punk. Bob Geldof makes few concessions to the demographic with his dour blues-rock and snippy banter: “Do you want to get pissed, stoned or fucked? Is it that type of festival?” he wonders, to awkward laughter.

Soul II Soul capture the mood better with the mellow Keep on Movin’, while Back to Life’s refrain of “back to reality” has extra resonance for those due at work on Monday. Underworld give the festival the euphoric send-off it deserves with a Dubnobasswithmyheadman-heavy set, featuring a climactic Born Slippy. NUXX segueing into a stunning firework and laser display. Then it’s away with the lager lager lager lager, and home.

Contributor

Paul Lester

The GuardianTramp

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