Greentraveller goes to Bestival & Camp Bestival

Now imagine the crowd when the music starts. Photo: Tobias Chapple

This summer greentraveller went to check out Bestival and its family-orientated sibbling, Camp Bestival. Tobias Chapple is delighted to discover strong sustainability undertones of Bestival while Holly Tuppen decides Camp Bestival is the ultimate family stay-cation.

What makes Bestival great is not the music. These may seem like fighting words for a festival that packs in hundreds of bands over four days, including a 32 song performance from The Cure, rumoured to have needed six years of planning, and acts like Bjork, PJ Harvey, Graham Coxon  or the Village People.  Yes, the Village People. They even took the time to teach everyone the proper way to dance the YMCA.

Only just arrived and already a recycling bin. Photo: Tobias ChappleBut what makes Bestival special is that there’s a sort of vision to it. Sometimes festivals can be just a bunch of music acts with a camping site attached and while Bestival is definitely a lot of fun, and will catch you off guard, there’s something more to it than that.

From the moment you arrive at Bestival, with its main entrance at the top of a hill giving a view of both the festival site down below and the sea in the distance, you feel like you’re entering a different world. Getting to the campsite means walking down a path lined with trees and fairy lights, and being greeted by a member of the Green Team who thrusts a recycling bag into your hands. The message is clear: Welcome to Bestival, things are a bit different, and recycling is one of our rules. 

The whole of the festival has an otherwordliness, as you walk past stands selling moules frites, a helter skelter, and into a canvas tent playing Bollywood music. The main stage itself looked like it had been decorated by a psychedelic six Green lights and a communal feel. Photo: Tobias Chappleyear old, complete with smiley faces and multicoloured stars. Bestival’s famous costume contest brings out revellers’ creative sides and so you’re constantly knocking into Kiss, Gaga, or Freddie Mercury. My personal favourite costume was a group of guys singing ‘Come On Baby Light My Fire’ while wearing wooden Doors.

But there’s more to this communal feel than people mucking about with makeup, as great as that is. There are excellent facilities for people from all walks of life, from disabled access, including a specific campsite and special access areas for each stage, to a family-specific campsite and even a camping area for people who like it quiet, with a noise curfew enforced from 11pm.

Plus, while it sounds high minded, there’s a sustainability vision. This goes beyond the excellent recycling facilities, the compost toilets and the abundance of fair trade and locally sources food stalls, as vital as they are. There’s a whole Green Team (who, unfortunately, don't come in superhero style green lycra) visibly busy around the site. 

No green lycra, but MONKEY SUITS. Photo: Tobias ChappleSimple example, when you give in a bag of recycling at Bestival’s information points, you get a cup of tea. Nevermind that there are recycling areas every 10 meters. It works too, I was talking to a camper who said she wouldn’t have recycled without the incentive and, after we both agreed that all recycling facilities should serve tea, she admitted that she may even start recycling when she gets home. 

This is why my favourite part of Bestival was Tomorrow’s World. Not the flashiest, or the most spectacular, but the part of the festival that brought home Bestival's sutainability commitments that stretched beyond just aiming for that Green Tick Box.

So what is Tomorrow’s World? Well it’s meant to be an idea of the future, an environmentally aware future, and showing ways Even the toilets look funky. AND these are compost toilets. Photo: Tobias Chappleto get there. There are all sorts of clever things around here, such as a science tent explaining what waves are or what climate change really means. A Pavegen musicfloor is powered by people dancing on it, as well as some less clever but still pretty interesting things, like sustainably sourced underwear from a brand called Pants to Poverty; testament that truly everything can be sustainable. Better still, 840 phones were charged by EcoIsland with only solar energy.

A number of fascinating community projects were featured, including a Quay Arts tent where you can join in with this local charity in painting a vision for the future with environmentally friendly materials. One project in particular caught my eye: an initiative from the Footprint Trust. This is based on the Isle of Wight and aims to rehabilitate individuals with a violent past by taking them out of themselves by letting them reconnect with nature, a version of environmental therapy: giving a different outlook with butterfly walks. 

Part of Tomorrow’s World is getting the word out about these projects and giving a hands-on feel to their work. Where else can you listen to music from a solar powered bandstand, eat locally sourced sweetcorn, charge your phone by solar and pedal power and pet a friendly chameleon provided by Guerilla Science. 

Beautiful carvings in an ancient tree. Photo: Tobias ChappleBestival has been working extensively with Julie’s Bicycle to reduce its environmental impact, undertaking yearly assessments of its activities to work out where it can improve in terms of sustainability. It also fits within a broader project to turn the Isle of Wight into an EcoIsland, a destination for green business and eco-holidays.

And who knows where it will lead? Next to Tomorrow’s World is Robin Hill, a leafy forest filled with wood carvings, hammocks and spoken word events. As I was walking through, I saw a group of people banding together to fish out a can from a pond. 

For more information about travelling to the Isle of Wight, check out our guide on taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne or the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth.
Read also greentraveller's guide to the Car-free scheme on the Isle of Wight.

For other holidays in the Isle of Wight, try The Really Green Holiday Company | Brookside Cottage | Vintage Vacations | Bedford Lodge, Shanklin Old Village and our page for Holidays and Green Accomodation in Hampshire

Besides all the sustainability undertones mentioned above, Camp Bestival is renowned for the fact that it is not just family friendly, but family orientated. If you do not have children, be prepared to feel slightly left out. The Bestival team have done everything possible to make families and kids of all ages feel welcome and catered for from the moment they enter the site.

Making it as easy as possible with trolleys for the kids. Photo: Holly TuppenThis starts with the offer of a trolley to not only take your stuff to the campsite, but also to push around the little ones, freeing up parents to have a dance and enjoy the music, whilst the kids slumber by their side. Ear muffs are also provided to protect fragile ears from the festival beats. A trend in decorating these trollies with blankets, flowers and fairy lights makes the festival site resemble a 1970s hippy convention; an atmosphere that everyone seems more than happy to indulge in. 

And then there's the entertainment. Unlike most festivals acts kick off as early as 10am, which is just as well, given the magority of the campsite are awake by 8am. Shrek the musical was created exclusively for Camp Bestival 2011, the main stage was hosted by kids TV presenters Dick and Dom on the Saturday and Mr Tumble proved a big hit on the Sunday. Off the main stage there were constant activities; Kawa Circus wowed kids and adults with their pantomime style acrobatics, The Crayonettes successfully gave their folk music a childlike twist and a helter skelter, flea circus and arts and crafts tent gave parents a chance to lie back in the sun. 

The Cuban Brothers entertain the older crowd. Photo: Holly TuppenHowever, if you are not a parent or under 12 years old fear not because there is something for everyone else. Top acts like Mark Ronson, Grove Armada, Eliza Doolittle and Primal Scream all played on the relatively small main stage, which creates a refreshingly intimate atmosphere. Comedians such as Robin Ince had the crowds in stitches and TV personalities like Sara Cox presented cosy and lively talks in a literary tent. Once all the kids had gone to bed the cocktail lounge and surrounding stages got going to the Cuban Brothers' brilliantly brash caberet and the hypnotic beats of DJ Yoda. There is even an adult only camping area for those that want to stay up late and not be woken early. 

In conclusion Camp Bestival is a great addition to or excuse for a staycation in the beautiful Jurassic Coast, Dorset. It's like a big family camping trip with non-stop creative, fun and interesting entertainment for the whole family. By opening on the Thursday and closing on the Monday, you can pitch up your tent for a full four days and take the festival at a relaxing pace. If you need a break from the crowds, you can even whizz the kids off for a quick dip in the sea at Lulworth Cove just down the road. 

We travelled to Camp Bestival with South West Trains from Waterloo to Wareham. Best South West Trains fares can be found online when you buy your tickets in advance. Visit South West Trains or call 0845 6000 650 for more details. For another eco friendly option see the Big Green Coach Company. 

If you would rather not stay on site then check out Greentravellers accommodation options nearby: Green places to stay in Somerset and Dorset.

Lulworth Castle and Park is the perfect spot for a family festival. Photo: Holly Tuppen