Bestival 2012

Offering a line-up of big music names and scene setters in a world fancy dress, packed full of surprises, secret stages, colour and fun. The dates for the 'Wildlife themed' ninth Bestival, held at Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight, are Thursday 6th until Sunday 9th September 2012.

Line-up

Florence + The Machine are the Friday headliners, New Order headline the Saturday night, and Stevie Wonder will close the festival with an exclusive performance. Orbital will be headlining the Big Top on Sunday. The xx, and Sigur Ros will both be UK festival exclusives. Also announced are David Icke, Wiley, Justice, Two Door Cinema Club, Hot Chip, Friendly Fires, Death In Vegas, Drums of Death, Rudimental, Kate Nash, dan le sac, Scroobius Pip, Disclosure, Stooshe, Soulwax, Nero, Emeli Sande, De La Soul, Major Lazer, The Horrors, Spiritualized, Kevin Saunderson feat Inner City Live, Gary Numan, Michael Kiwanuka, Azealia Banks, M. Ward, Sub Focus, Gallows, Earth, Wind & Fire Experience feat Al McKay, Rizzle Kicks, The Cuban Brothers, Buraka Som Sistema, Bellowhead, Little Dragon, Adam Ant And The Good The Mad And The Lovely Posse, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Chas & Dave, Dub Pistols, The Japanese Popstars, Rob da Bank himself plus 2manydjs, Annie Mac Presents, DJ Yoda, Maya Jane Coles, Scuba, LTJ Bukem, Plastician, Greg Wilson, Scratch Perverts, Jaguar Skills, and more. For the line-up details as available please click here.

Tickets

Tickets have sold out again this year. Posh camping is still available priced at £299. Tickets including entry from Thursday 6th September were priced at £180 for Adult Tickets and £120 for Teen (age 13-17) Tickets. For those arriving on or after Friday 7th September Adult Tickets are priced at £170 or £110 for Teen (age 13-17) Tickets. Tickets for children (age 12 & under) are free (but must have a ticket).

There is also a ticket Payment Plan available - pay a sixth of the total ticket price (plus booking fees & postage) now, with the further five payments spread across the following five consecutive months (available from Ticketline).

Parking tickets are priced at £10. Campervan Tickets were priced at £85 (per vehicle) and have sold out. Your Campervan must be specially adapted for people to stay in (which does not include transit vans with a mattress in the back or 4x4s with the seats folded down). If your vehicle is longer than 7 metres you will need to purchase two Campervan Tickets. Cars will not be allowed into the Campervan area at any time so consequentially Caravans, Trailer Tents etc are not permitted.

To buy tickets from Ticketline, click here.

get there by coach

Big Green Coach is running coaches to Bestival from 12 locations.
To book, click here.

Terms and conditions

Bestival has also brought in stricter rules for those attending with teens. Ticket buyers are asked to note that adult tickets can only be used by persons age 18 or over. Teen tickets can only be purchased by persons over the age of 30. Purchasers of a child ticket or a teen ticket must be either the parent or legal guardian of the teen or child for whom the ticket is purchased. Child and teen ticket holders can only enter the festival with the person who purchased their ticket i.e. their parent or legal guardian.

Any Teen ticket holders attempting to enter the festival without this person will be denied entry to the festival. For safety reasons, any persons attempting to enter the festival with a Child Ticket holder that they are not the parent or legal guardian will be denied entry. Each adult attending can accompany up to a maximum of 2 Teen Ticket holders. Teen ticket holders must camp in the same location as their families and are not allowed in the arena field unaccompanied after 10pm. Teen ticket holders must be accompanied by their parent/guardian at all times after 10pm. Child ticket holders are not allowed in the arena or campsites unaccompanied at any time.

This year the festival has also announced 'Barter for Bestival', where those who can't afford a ticket, can barter themselves for a few hours to help with an IOW charity legacy project in exchange for a free Bestival ticket. This year 50 people will get the opportunity to help create a community allotment space working with Natural Enterprise. Applications will open on 20th February when full details will be announced.

On site

As well as the music, Bestival has the world's biggest fancy dress party for 50,000 festival goers - this year's theme is Wildlife, Bestival offers cocktail bars, laughter clubs, a farmers market, kids area, morris dancing, magical moments and more, as one of the most colourful events on the festival calendar.

New additions

New for 2012 is the 'Lost Picture Show' – a vintage cinema to take you back to the golden age of movie going, and Rob da Bank will be rescoring the 1930s original of 'King Kong' at the brand new 'Amphitheatre' performance space in the Woods with more film collaborations to be announced soon.

The Healing Area expands this year to become a 'Soul Park' featuring spaces for yoga, massage, relaxation, hammocks and meditation with the David Lynch Foundation plus wood-burning Scandinavian hot tubs and a sauna area.

Also new for 2012 is Arcadia's brand new structure their 'Mechanical Cabaret' – not content with having invented the crazy mechanical spider that spits flames and has added wow factor to the last few Bestis, Arcadia have now trawled the world for brand new structures and insane fire art to wow us with, much of it from Burning Man.

Already announced for the sister event Camp Bestival 'Young British Foodies' brings young chefs, street food vendors, bakers and mixologists together under one roof.

'The Bollywood Bar' will get a complete Josie da Bank makeover – with an old London bus being transformed into a Bollywood chill out bar in full Indian colours and the inside getting a cinematic Bollywood lick of paint.

There will also be a new venue the 'Grand Palace of Entertainment' offering twisted cabaret, raucous games and quizzes, dancing lycra-clad bearded trannies and multicolored, glitter strewn, late night parties.

The festival also expands again this year offering even more camping space – capacity won't be expanding but there will be more space to throw up your tent, not tat you'll be using it much.

Bestival are also inviting festi-goers to get creative and form their own bloco and be part of 'Bestival Carnival Parade' on Saturday afternoon and are hoping for fabulous costumes, drumming, dancing and giant puppets.

This year there's also the chance to 'Cycle To Bestival' festival goers can emulate Mark Cavendish with a truly Olympic effort to ride almost 100miles from Central London to Bestival and raise cash for charity. More details will be available at the end of the month.

Organiser Rob da Bank also brings his 'Music Club' to Bestival. The project, set up in partnership with the Isle of Wight Youth Trust, is coming to Robin Hill to offer up a brilliant selection music and arts workshops for youngsters to discover if they're a rock star in the making.

Disabled info

Bestival's organisers are committed to making the festival as accessible as possible and great efforts are being been made to achieve this. However, Bestival is an outdoor event in a Country Park and on farm land that is predominantly positioned at the bottom of a valley between two hills that rise fairly steeply, and as such it will present challenges for wheelchair users and those with serious mobility issues. However, with a little help here and there it is manageable and Bestival provide free tickets for carers to this end. Carers can apply for a free carers ticket and a disabled pass. The Disabled Camping Area is positioned near to the main Robin Hill entrance. Vehicles with a blue badge (or similar) can park in the disabled camping area. It is about 5 minutes from here to the main arena but it should be noted that this journey will be downhill on the way there and uphill on the way back. There are charging points for electric wheelchairs available upon request and disabled toilets onsite. Contact the organisers if you have further questions.

Ferry returns

For those leaving the island by ferry please arrive no earlier than 1 hour before your departure time on Monday.

More info

Click HERE for information about all aspects of Bestival.

More information will be here when available.

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