Bestival, the fancy dress friendly event that wraps up the UK’s summer festival season, is to move sites. No more will revellers have to contend with queues for ferries to and from the Isle of Wight, because the event’s organisers plan to move it to the Lulworth Estate in Dorset, the home of its sister festival, Camp Bestival.
“Hot off the press – yes Bestival is moving!” said Bestival curator Rob da Bank. “We can confirm we have submitted a licence application for a new site at the Lulworth Estate in Dorset and we’re super excited about our shiny new Bestival adventure. We have an incredible lineup, headliners confirmed and ridiculous new stages and installations coming your way in 2017.”
This year’s event is due to take place from 7-10 September.
That the Lulworth Estate already hosts Camp Bestival is likely to make the logistics of moving easier. The Scottish festival T in the Park was forced to change sites from Balado airfield to Strathallan Castle, and after just two years at the new site its organisers have cancelled next year’s event. “The constraints – logistically and financially – that the resulting planning conditions put upon us are simply not workable,” said DF Concerts.
Bestival has been held at the Robin Hill country park on the Isle of Wight since 2004, growing from an event in which 10,000 people saw the Bees, Basement Jaxx and Zero 7 headline to one with a 55,000 capacity, attracting some of music’s biggest names. Its headliners have included Outkast, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Kraftwerk and the Cure. In 2015 and 2016 it also offered a spinoff festival in Canada, Bestival Toronto.
