Graham Tarrant

Rain or shine: Camp Bestival is the ultimate fun-filled family festival.

Although the line up this year in Dorset doesn’t seem as impressive as the sister Shropshire line-up (well this big-kid was upset that Primal Scream weren’t down at the Lulworth Castle event), there was certainly something for all the family over the weekend.

This year marked the 15th anniversary of Camp Bestival – as usual there was plenty of fancy dress across the site. This year, it was animal themed, with the festival teaming up with the fantastic World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Billed as the ‘Best. Party. Ever’, Australian DJ Hot Dub Time Machine began proceedings by showcasing records from every decade and genre of music, from ‘Ghostbusters‘ to Louis Theroux’s ‘Jiggle Jiggle‘…in his words, Camp Bestival is ‘the best festival in the world. There’s nothing like this anywhere else in the world‘ – he could well be right.

Festival favourites Elvana followed with Elvis fronted Nirvana tunes, mixed in with Blue Suede Shoes and Hound Dog….the ever-charming Scouting for Girls followed with chart-friendly pop songs. Later, Ella Henderson, recently dropped from mogul Simon Cowell’s Syco label, delighted fans despite the pouring rain, with a mix of dance classics ‘Crazy What Love Can Do‘ and ‘Glitterball‘. Brighton indie-boys The Kooks brought the Friday night to a close.

Saturday at Camp Bestival is always fancy-dress day and this year didn’t disappoint.

While on initial glance, the line-up didn’t dazzle, at Camp Bestival, the costumes certainly did sparkle. It’s always the hidden gems and surprises which make it such a special event that festival goers return to each and every year.

This year, was certainly no change. The highlight of the weekend was the HMS Camp Bestival stage, with an unmissable back-to-back DJ set with festival founder and curator Rob da Bank and fashion icon Gok Wan.

Always one to make an impressive appearance, Gok descended on to the stage from above in a giant heart, scattering scented confetti onto the fans. Truly it had to be seen with the crowd dancing while the sun shone. A little later, East 17 brought their House of Love to the Big Top, before closing their summer festival set strangely with Xmas hit song ‘Stay Another Day.’ Fortunately the gifts kept giving, and Summer Festival Guide favourites The Cuban Brothers never disappoint. Miguelito always acknowledges the stunning location of Lulworth Castle as a backdrop and summed up the event well to the press team by stating Camp Bestival is ‘the original festival where you see people coming together, having fun and being free, that’s why it’s so special!”

Always a difficult act to follow, and there’s only one woman in the industry who can do it – Ms Grace Jones. Her stage presence is transfixing and she refuses to grow old without any grace (excuse the pun.) At a majestic 75 years, she hula hooped through her greatest hits, including ‘Slave To The Rhythm‘ and ‘Pull Up To The Bumper‘, where she rode the security guards shoulders as she met her adoring fans.

Sunday began with everyone’s favourite Australian CBeebies legend Bluey, before Mr Motivator blew away all the cobwebs getting everyone, including the aforementioned security guards working out.

Later, remarkably impressive tributes to Kate Bush and Dolly Parton followed, before Spice Girl Mel C delighted mums (as well as many dads with her washboard abs on show.) Beginning with solo material, including ‘When You’re Gone‘, it was truly the girl power songs the crowd were looking for, and she didn’t disappoint. Mixing an acoustic ‘Spice Up Your Life‘ with ‘2 Become 1‘ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are‘, it’ll be great to see if the rumours of a Spice Girl reunion headlining Glastonbury next year are true. Watch this space.

Another difficult act to follow, but Confidence Man, brought the magic from their 2022 Glastonbury winning set to the Dorset coast. A mix of Scissor Sisters and 90s dance, their multiple impressive costume changes kept everyone moving. If you ever get chance to catch them, it’s a definite must and a sublime booking, before Craig David took over the decks with his TS5 show.

Asked what TS5 means, it’s his one man show, in which he DJs, MCs, sings his own material and also covers a number of classic R’n’B tunes, from the likes of Whitney Houston to TLC.

No Camp Bestival can conclude without the absolute highlight and majesty which is the acclaimed firework display.

With Lulworth Castle lit up with animal imagery, fireworks illuminated the sky to the delight of the young and older ones within the audience.

Rob da Bank summed up the weekend perfectly, stating ‘What a weekend with our Camp Bestival family! Josie and I had the best time celebrating 15 years of memories across four magical days and we are thrilled that all of our Camp Bestival family could join us. From a roaring Animal Snap theme to headline sets from Grace Jones, The Kooks and Craig David, it’s been a birthday celebration for the history books and we can’t wait to bring the magic of Camp Bestival to Shropshire in just three weeks time!”‘

Roll on Camp Bestival in Shropshire on 17 August – if you’re lucky you may still get some tickets at https://shropshire.campbestival.net

If not, jump quickly on the early bird sale for Camp Bestival 2024 – it’s always the ultimate family festival https://dorset.campbestival.net

The Saturday starts off warm, but things are about to get even hotter, as Pink brings her Summer Carnival Tour to Hyde Park.

Opening the Great Oak stage was Gayle, self-described on her YouTube channel as ‘bassive aggressive dyslexic’ – unusual choice of words, especially as she finished with her hit ‘ABCDE-FU’.

Next up was Eurovision wonder Sam Ryder – it’s impressive he’s playing BST as a support artist, as he’s booked to headline many events this summer himself, including Camp Bestival. Dressed in a knitted smiley outfit, he encourages the crowd to join him in a singalong of ‘better to have fought and lost than never fought at all‘ from his hit song from Ted Lasso tv-show, but the crowd are clearly here waiting for his galactic hit ‘Spaceman‘. It was his birthday over the weekend and what a way to celebrate!

When you’re Pink, you can call upon the biggest artists to support you. They don’t come much bigger than Gwen Stefani, fresh from her own headline appearance at Warwick Castle. To promote the tour, she’s appeared on BBC’s flagship The One Show, as well as This Morning and touted her love of British Music, Madness and The Selecter and it’s clear to see her 2Tone influences with her impressive outfits and costume changes.

As well as solo hits ‘Hollaback Girl‘ and ‘The Sweet Escape‘, she introduces her new song ‘True Babe‘, with the video and lyrics shown on the large screens. The sh!t really is bananas as she mixes Alice in Wonderland visual sets with Harajuku Girls and throws in a few classic No Doubt songs for good measure. On ‘Rich Girl‘, she was also joined by American rapper Even to the delight of the crowd.

What You Waiting For? Well there’s only one act that could possibly follow Gwen Stefani, and she certainly doesn’t disappoint.

P!NK likes to make a big entrance and at Hyde Park, there is simply no exception.

In front of a 65,000+ crowd, she appeared at the very top of the stage and proceeded to bungee down to greet her adoring fans.

What a way to get the party started. For almost two hours, she sling-shotted herself across the stage in a series of impressive leotards. But it wasn’t just the aerial acrobatics. She has an incredible singing voice, but also a voice which refuses to be silenced when she wants to make a clear message and speak up for what she believes in. Talking with the crowd, many people threw gifts, including chocolates and a vast array of soft-toy frogs. By far the most impressive, and (also most pungent) gift she was presented with though was a whole wheel of cheese – god only knows how the audience member managed to get that past the security into the coveted gold-circle.

Her daughter Willow Sage Hart joined her onstage for a version of ‘Cover Me In Sunshine‘, and she impressively covered First Aid Kit’s song ‘Kids in Love‘, and Sade’s ‘No Ordinary Love’, added her own unique style onto each.

Finishing the show, she literally took to the air again high above the crowds, singing ‘So What‘ and finished to a backdrop of fireworks. Such an impressive audio and visual show.

Following P!NK next weekend will be two polar extremes – Guns’n’Roses fresh from their triumphant set and Glastonbury on Friday, while Take That will shine brightly on Saturday.

There may be a few tickets left. Check out https://www.bst-hydepark.com for more details.

Words: Graham Tarrant. All images: Copyright: Dave Hogan/Hogan Media.

Kite: Self-described as ”a festival like no other’, this truly was one of the most eclectic and exciting line-ups of the summer.

Where else could you see Dame Joan Collins as support act for Hot Chip? Or Tony Blair’s former PR guru Alastair Campbell on stage before former Conservative PM Sir John Major?

Mel Giedroyc kicked off proceedings, interviewing Adam Kay, best selling author of ‘This Is Going to Hurt’. Cheekily, Michael Gove was conducting a newspaper review next door, so Mel encouraged the crowd to cheer ‘Gove is Guilty’ – quite!

Boris Johnson’s resignation as MP following his shameful lying dominated proceedings all weekend. Sir John Major stated ‘Johnson has attacked a bedrock of our democracy, by ransacking and ignoring the convention of behaviours in parliament’. In the ex-PM’s words: ‘The worst enemy of Boris Johnson is in fact Boris himself.’

Headliners Hot Chip had the crowd dancing Over-and-Over, in the words of their pop song. Truly, they remain one of Summer Festival Guide’s favourite live bands.

Elsewhere, Alison Goldfrapp was truly breathtaking in her sequinned dress, with an elaborate cast of choreographed backing dancers, but the 10,000 strong-crowd reaction was a little lacklustre. Later, Grammy Award winning Candy Staton delighted fans on her farewell tour with hits ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ and ‘Stand By Your Man.’

Sunday morning began with Shadow-chancellor Rachel Reeves answering questions from the crowd in a confident manner.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t just speeches and politics all weekend. The Pretenders still have the swagger and great true rock’n’roll tunes. Unfortunately their set was cut short by the overhead electrical storm, but they still played crowd pleasers ‘Stop Your Sobbing’ and ‘Back on the Chain Gang’. It’s a surprise The Pretenders weren’t booked as headliners.

Django Django followed after the thunder passed with their unique electronic blend of synthesisers and guitars, before Britpop legends Suede stormed on stage. Truly loving the crowd reception, Brett Anderson gets better with age and clearly put everything into his performance, leaving the stage dripping head-to-toe in sweat.

Ciro Romano, festival director, summed the event up well:

“The long-awaited second-ever KITE brought immense joy and a renewed sense of togetherness. The enthusiastic response from our passionate audience reaffirmed the festival’s unwavering ethos. Against the stunning Kirtlington Park backdrop, attendees revelled in a weekend of unforgettable music, thought-provoking cultural experiences, and delightful new discoveries.”

Let’s hope the event returns again next year.