Saturday 08/09/07 Day Two @ Bestival, Robin Hill Country Park, Isle of Wight

It’s the second day of Bestival and fields of bleary eyed campers are rising from the kind of night of debauchery that’s now becoming synonymous with the Isle of Wight bash. The only thing for it is an obligatory cup of tea and a greasy egg and bacon sandwich to soak up the excesses of the night before.  The blanket of cloud that had first greeted us when we first poked our heads out of our tents this afternoon have long evaporated. It’s time for the fun to commence. Well not quite - time to get into our rather fetching attire. While most opt for the suggested pirates or wizards, there’s a smorgasbord of different outfits on display - from St George knights to sumo wrestlers, to all in one alien suits, to giant bananas -  as always at Bestival everyone embraces the fancy dress with childish enthusiasm.

A trek up the sprawling Bestival hill to the Bandstand in the baking early afternoon sun leaves us, well, ****ing knackered. So we opt to sit down looking out onto the glorious valley below and slowly get hydrated and ready for the act. Lucky we have the sanguine sounds of a Tunng to gently ease us in. Blighted throughout by a series of technical hitches, the folktronica collective smile regardless and treat us to  gently intoxicating tunes like ‘Bricks’ and ‘Woodcat’ which are the perfect soundtrack to the afternoon. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the other acts on offer - thecocknbullkid are let down by dire vocals from their front woman, while similarly Simple Kid fail to impress. Luckily there’s a giant twister mat to keep us entertained.

After a quick liquid refill at the tent it’s time for the real carnage to begin. We catch the tail end of the endearing Robyn in the Big Top before the ever zany Bonde do Role infect us with their loopy Brazilian ditties and beats. Frontwoman Marina Ribatski is the centre of attention as she literally bounces off the strained vocals of Pedro and DJ Rodrigo Gorky. Always threatening to boil over, it’s the ultimate ‘Office Boy’ the really lifts the impressively packed tent and gets those present fired up for the impending Beastie Boys headline set later.

Some Balearic beats later thanks to Yousef over in the Bollywood Tent, wide-eyed and with a nasty gin mixer in hand we head over for New York’s finest on the Main Stage. Despite hearing about the luke-warm response to their Brixton Academy dates last week, I for one thought the trio and Mix Master Mike would do the honours tonight. Oh how wrong I was. Something has happened to the Beasties in recent years and its far from the good. It’s an overly self-indulgent set which incorporates far too much on their dire instrumental album  ‘The Mix Up’ and far too little on their smash hits. Even the usually brilliant ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ sounds tired and gets lost on the crowd. It’s little surprise that three quarters of the way through the set, droves of people are leaving the field.