Music: Bestival 2009

After last year's unpredicated wash out making the last festival of the summer more of an endurance tesk for the dedicated, this year's Bestival put on its sun hat, space themed costume and party shoes for a fantastic weekend of the weird and wonderful.

Here are our top 10 moments from Bestival 2009.
 
10. Wedstival - Fully booked for the enire weekend, the inflata-church housed a dirty priest who joined Bestivillians in unholy matrimony to a soundtrack of inappropriate dance hip hop.

9. The Bandstand - Well worth the walk back up the hill, the bandstand showcases smaller musical gems to an appreciative audience. Highlights included concious rap outfit Sound of Rum as recommended by word poet Scroobius Pip. It was also a bit amusing to stroll past to see three quarters of The Kooks realising that they couldn't hold their convincing own in such an intimate setting...
 
8. Man Like Me/Kid Carpet - Probably two of the most fun and funny acts around, Man Like Me and Kid Carpet put on adjacent fantastic shows. MLM's new line up, including a brass section, is a polished act to be taken seriously, while Sunday Best's Kid Carpet was all about the controversial jokes. All together now: 'Bristol! We built this city on slavery....' 
 
7. Major Lazer - A collaboration between Diplo and Switch, Major Lazer had the entire Big Top tent crunking, jumping and generally going wild pon de floor for their digital raggae/bashment sound. MASH UP!
 
6. Seasick Steve Serenades - Main Stage act Seasick Steve generated a collective 'sigh' serenading a lucky audience member. He then generated a collective 'yeehaaw!' with his set of hardened blues on broken guitars.
 
5. The Site - The Bestival site was a real success this year, set in the centre of a beautiful country park; the tents, stages and bars all made for a constantly gorgeous view. From the enormous lit-up tulips to the purple compost portaloos, Bestival looked at good as it sounded.

4. Jack Penate - Penate's new sound and his live translation of the tight production on his second album was clearly a winner this year as a packed Big Top suggested. Newer tunes Pull Myself Away, Be The One and Let's All Die went down like a storm with an appreciative crowd.
 
3. Costume Party Saturday - One aspect that sets Bestival apart from its peer-festivals is its costume party. This year's space-themed effort was a truly outstanding array of spacemen/women, rockets, aliens and even a full Tetris game! There really is no choice to spoil-sport and 'come as yourself' - dressing up is an essential part of Bestivillian culture.

2. The After-Burner - A new addition to the site this year, the After Burner 24 Hour DJ booth set the acts in a rocket/castle (we couldn't tell!) surrounded by a fire show and thousands of late night revellers. A real spectacular tribal experience in the small hours, though we had to admit it looked a little bit like a Disney castle during the day...!
 
1. The Sunday Headliners - Doves, Fleet Foxes, Elbow! All in a row! All on the main stage! This took a lot of stocking up from the bar and dancing around to the mid-act DJs to keep warm in the frankly chilly September night, but was unmissible. After Doves played a formidible show, and Fleet Foxes got everyone staring off into the distance with impeccable baroque harmonies, an anthemic Elbow stole the festival. Thousands of revellers singing along to their Ivor Novello-award winning hit A Day Like This even after the band was well clear of the stage, slowly winding up to the 24 hour field during a massive firework display was really enough to make this the best Bestival so far.