11 weeks until Camp Bestival!
More fun announced for this summer’s inaugural camping show...
Including:
- You can play live on the main-stage with the Camp Bestival Jug Band!
- And join the World’s Biggest Marching Band!
- The tastiest gourmet food ever
- Strummerville Campfire Sessions - King Creosote, The Hat, Scroobius Pip & more
- Come Dancing Spiegeltent
- Kamp Karaoke
- Kids’ Dressing Up and workshops a plenty
- Happy Campers Area
- Lost & Found curated Theatre & Dance In The Woods
- and much more!
Tickets Still Available:
Ticketline: www.ticketline.co.uk / 0844 888 4410
Lastminute: www.lastminute.com
The sun is shining and Camp Bestival is only 11 weeks away! With world-class headliners Chuck Berry, The Flaming Lips and Kate Nash plus a veritable cornucopia of Rob da Bank’s favs from Hercules And Love Affair, The Imagined Village (live folk supergroup featuring Billy Bragg, Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy amongst others) to some of Robby’s top tips for 2008 from Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong to Kid Carpet and Florence & The Machine, it’s a super line up – all that plus, our boys in Bestival Bluecoats The Cuban Brothers leading the troops into campsite merriment of the highest order with Sports Days, Jousting, Kids Workshops and general party shenanigans.
And there’s so much more...
Firstly we’re calling all singers, strummers, drummers and pipers to join the Camp Bestival Jug Band! Following on from last year's brilliant 'Night of 100 Ukes' (whereby 100 Bestival-goers played ukuleles live on the Bestival Main Stage to a packed arena) the Dulwich Ukulele Club are putting together another band solely made up of Camp Bestival festival goers to perform at this year’s event. This time it's open to any musical instrument - the weirder and more wonderful the better - combs, jugs or fiddles, washboards, tubas, triangles or stylophones - talent is irrelevant, enthusiasm is everything! The twist is that the band will write three original songs on the spot at Camp Bestival, rehearse and then perform them the next day to the festival massive! If you feel that you can't sing or play then please come along anyway - clappers and foot stampers are urgently required! So if you have any old musical instrument you would like to play, dust it down, bring it along and join the one and only Camp Bestival Jug Band. This is your chance to play on the same bill as Chuck Berry!
If playing live on the Main Stage sounds a wee bit daunting for you, then why not help us try and break a world record by joining our brilliant Camp Bestival Marching Band. At the front of the procession will be Big Bertha - the UK’s largest bass drum! Behind her will be 5,000+ happy festival-goers forming the world’s biggest ever marching band. Also organised by the Dulwich Ukulele Club and featuring alpine horns, tin cans, magical whistles, pied pipers, musical megaphones, squeezeboxes, cardboard boxes, and a kazoo disco orchestra, the Camp Bestival Marching Band will create a beautiful noise whose love vibrations will be felt across the whole of southern England!
As well as fun and games we’re also serving up the best food and munchable delights at the Camp Bestival kitchen - prepare to have your taste buds royally tickled in our gourmet food area with the Dorset Farmers’ Market selling a feast of local produce from high tea delights, pastries, cheese, pies and ice-cream. Our Fish Stall will be tempting festival-goers with barbecued fruits de mer, with locally caught fresh fish, prawns and other shellfish on offer. And don’t forget to pay a visit to the WI Tea Tent for a proper refreshing cuppa, cakes and a bit of TLC from everybody’s favourite surrogate mums – they are already baking like crazy!
After all that eating you are probably going to want to get busy and take part in some of the many activities on offer over the weekend…
A massive hit at Bestival on the Isle of Wight, we will be bringing our Come Dancing Spiegeltent to Camp Bestival where you can enjoy free lessons (for all ages and abilities) and learn that dance that you had always promised yourself you would learn. Waltz with the wife, Tango with your toddler or Boogie with your babies! And if you just wanna dance all weekend, we can also offer you the chance to take part in our Maypole, Tudor & Country Dancing sessions at the Insect Stage (in The Garden).
If vocal gymnastics are more your style, then maybe you might like to grab a spot in the limelight at our Kamp Karaoke, which will cater for all tastes with special Folkaoke, Hip-Hopaoke and Karauke slots as well as special ‘Sing Star’ sing-offs via our new partner Sony Playstation.
Our Boutique Campsite is open for business and now’s the time to book yourself a Tipi, Yurt, Bestival Bivouac or PodPad before they all get snapped up. Check the camping section of this website for all the info. You will also find our Zuvuya Yeah Campfire Area located in the Boutique Campsite – this will boast a 24hr cinema tent, as well as a garden chill-out space plus there will be singalongs and jamming around the campfire, complete with old Cockney Joanna (or a piano to you and me).
Meanwhile over in the main campsite and you will be able to chill (& keep warm!) at night around the flames of delight as the Strummerville Campfire Sessions kick off with exclusive unplugged sets (and singalongs) with some of the top acts playing at Camp Bestival.
Jo-Jo Evans, Strummerville charity manager, says: "We're really excited about linking up with Bestival and especially being involved in the first ever Camp Bestival. Strummerville is committed to offering performance opportunities to emerging musicians, whether it's on a big stage playing a warm up slot for a famous band, or playing a few chords around a campfire. Bestival will give us a real opportunity to build on this and we're really looking forward to presenting some great music from some of our favourite well known artists and undiscovered talent."
Already confirmed are King Creosote, The Hat, Emmy The Great, Melodica, Melody & Me and This Is the Kit as well as spoken word sets from Scroobius Pip and friends.
We also have plenty of play opportunities for kids of all ages…
Where else could you find all these great activities for kids all in one place this summer? They’ll love our Shadow Puppet Workshops from the Eden Project team, local Punch & Judy shows from Street Entertainers, a Kids’ Dressing-Up Tent & Catwalk in the Kids’ Garden (complete with workshops where budding Vivian Westwoods can make their own wings, crowns and much more), budding Stan Lees can create their own superheroes at the weekend’s Comic & Cartoon Workshops, and don’t forget our ace Kids’ Area is open all weekend complete with big top, bouncy castles and workshops etc.
If you want good old-fashioned fun and games for all the family at Camp Bestival – you got ‘em! The Happy Campers Area will be running tent putting-up competitions, organised playground favourite games (yes Dad - including kiss-chase!) as well as their own tea shop, and will be showing the kids how to make everything from tipis to Indian head-dresses.
And knitting… we predict that knitting will be officially hip again in 2008, so why not come along and try your hand in our Knitting Tent? Renowned knitwear fan Rob da Bank (often to be found in a comfy cardy) said of this new initiative:
“We’re always on the lookout for new things for our mates to try out at our festivals and there’s definitely not been enough knitting at festivals – so we’re about to change all that as our chums at I Knit London are gonna run knitting lessons all weekend (and make some nice tea too)”.
Finally (for now anyway), our buddies over at Lost & Found will be curating a Theatre & Dance In The Woods arts extravaganza. A magical trail will lead the audience around a set in the woods that is currently being designed and built by art students from Cambridge University. The set will be animated by some of our favourite dance and theatre groups, including young Dorset performers plus some other world-class companies who will all be performing new pieces specially commissioned for Camp Bestival. Gideon Reeling (the sister company of Punchdrunk Theatre) will be performing late night shows. Taking part earlier in the day will be 'Bridge that Gap' (16-18yr olds from Weymouth Drama Club), Upside Dance (a new dance company mostly made up of graduates from LABAN School and members of Transitions Dance Company) and The Performance Lab, who will also be doing a devised piece.
That’s it for now folks – keep checking this website for more info and don’t forget to buy those all important tickets…
Hi De Hi Campers!!
Camp Bestival Tickets:
Ticketline: www.ticketline.co.uk / 0844 888 4410
Lastminute: www.lastminute.com
Adult Weekend Tickets - £120
Age 13 to 15 Child Weekend Tickets - £60
Age 12 & Under Child Weekend Tickets – FREE (ticket required)
Campervan Tickets - £50 (per vehicle)
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