Bestival

Ah, so it was all worth it in the end. All the stress of getting the ticket melted away in the baking hot sunshine on the Isle of Wight. This time two weeks ago I was getting ready to go, ensuring everything was packed (except, unfortunately, for the Pritt Stick that would have made my fancy dress costume marginally less rubbish looking than it ultimately was).

A few niggles aside - the positioning of the main stage (at the top of a steep hill?!), the noise bleed from nearby stages, and most of all, the farcical departure procedures on Monday - I had an amazing time, as did the rest of the posse.... There were the usual tales of debauchery which due to a "what goes on tour" pact I am unable to divulge, but we all came through it with brain cells and - by and large - memories intact.

Highlights for me were Friendly Fires, Klaxons, 2 Many DJs, Speech Debelle and a couple of moments down at the Afterburner stage - Rob da Bank playing classic after classic on Saturday night (I never realised what an amazing tune 'Bonkers' by Dizzee Rascal was until I heard played 'properly') and closing off proceedings on Sunday night dancing and hollering along to cheesy pop in the Jim Beam bar. Of the headliners, I have to admit that I left Massive Attack after about 3 songs to go and dance my socks of at Optimo, and departed Kraftwerk after a similar amount of time on Saturday night - sacrilege I know, but I was on the road to falling asleep after overdoing it the night before and my heart just wasn't in it. It took the aforementioned Mr da Bank to drag me back from the abyss and keep me going until 2am. Elbow, thankfully, were as epic as I hoped they would be, and listening to 'One Day Like This' even now sends shivers down my spine.

The fancy dress was a bit of a disaster - stuck together with parcel tape, it looked for all the world like I was wearing some cardboard with a washing up bowl on my head and a pair of wellies wrapped in tin foil. Mercifully, Mr Spoon was by definition a space explorer built from assorted kitchen detritus, so I like to think I pulled off a far more authentic costume than the plentiful other Spoons I saw wafting around the festival. Someone thought so anyway, and somewhere on the internet there is a photo of me taken by one of the 'proper' photographers doing the rounds - as yet I've been unable to track it down though. I gave everyone a chuckle anyway, so I would call it a result all round....

Only downer was the queue to get out - bedlam that resulted in a 4 hour wait in the sun for a taxi. The only bonus was that we weren't in a car - my other mates were, and Craig and I were back in Portsmouth having a beer and some lunch whilst they hadn't yet moved an inch in the car park. Having all left together at 10.30am, I left Craig off in Woolwich at 7pm, was home by 8, whilst they wended their sorry way into their drive at midnight. Took the edge of events for a few days, but as usual, the bad bits are all forgotten now.....