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REPORTS/PICS/VIDEOS of Mika @ Bestival - Isle of Wight, UK 12-09-2009


mari62

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Thanks for the very full report Rose. it certainly sounds like a very eventful weekend:shocked:. So Sorry that things didn't work out for you.

 

Did you actually see Andy at all? He may not of actually been there after all?

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May I ask what Andy had promised you, Rose?

 

At the party last Monday, I mentioned what Mika had said in his vlog about looking for Martians to dance on stage, and said I'd be up for it, and if he could put a word in, that would be great. He said he would, and later before I left, he said he would come and find me when he got there.

 

Thanks for the very full report Rose. it certainly sounds like a very eventful weekend:shocked:. So Sorry that things didn't work out for you.

 

Did you actually see Andy at all? He may not of actually been there after all?

 

I didn't see him, which is unusual, as he always comes round for a chat, but he said he was going as he loves going there.

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There's a also a video from Bestival: Mika is on from about 1,25 to 1,55 min.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8253782.stm

 

Bestival blasts into the big time

 

Some 40,000 fans were at the event on the Isle of Wight this weekend

 

By Ian Youngs

Music reporter, BBC News

 

An army of aliens, astronauts and assorted space cadets has brought the festival season to a close with a giant fancy dress party at Bestival.

 

Spocks, Stormtroopers and Supermen came in peace, star children sparkled and home-made monsters ran amok.

 

It was all in the name of dressing up, which was all in the name of... pointless fun, really.

 

But pointless fun is an integal part of Bestival, an annual music festival on the Isle of Wight, and outer space was this year's theme.

 

Since it began in 2004, Bestival has grown into one of the most popular, most eccentric events in the music calendar.

 

Held in a holiday adventure park, its attendance has risen from around 6,000 in its first year to 40,000 this weekend.

 

One small step, one giant party... Many fans dressed along the space theme

 

It has grown into Glastonbury's upstart brother, with a similar quest for an eclectic line-up, shameless party spirit and unusual range of attractions.

 

On stage, Lily Allen, Mika, Elbow, Massive Attack and Kraftwerk were among the big names who entertained the crowds.

Chart stars La Roux, Florence and the Machine and Tinchy Stryder shared the bill alongside the English National Ballet - who performed a special space routine - and composer Michael Nyman.

 

But like Glastonbury, Bestival has a surreal, theatrical and unorthodox underbelly away from the main stages.

As well as dressing up, festival-goers could play Rebel Bingo (imagine bingo called by Johnny Rotten), or take part in a beard and moustache competition or play giant Abba scrabble.

 

Then they could eat Christmas lunch, go on a toboggan, sing Cockney classics in the Knees Up tent and round off the night with Kitten Von Strumpet's burlesque show.

 

Flamboyant pop star Mika played his first festival gig at Bestival in 2007, and returned this weekend to sing on the main stage amid a foil-laden lunar landscape.

 

"A lot of festivals can get quite miserable because the walk from gig to gig is miserable," he says.

 

"Here, it is entertaining because all the beautiful freaks in the UK come out to unhinge.

 

"You get a bit of everything. There are old people, young people, people who want to do drugs, people who are completely sober but look completely insane.

 

"It's a nice mix."

 

Bestival is organised by BBC Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank, who describes it as "an escapist festival".

 

"People come down here to lose themselves for three days," and dressing up helps with that, he says.

 

"There were about 10,000 people in the fancy dress parade and a lot more than that dressed up around the site.

 

"There was everything from your Buzz Lightyears and ETs through to your really weird, wacky conceptual fancy dress. Everyone really made an effort."

 

Dane Whitehurst, 28, from the Isle of Wight, became a cardboard Star Wars robot.

 

The costume was created by tracing the dimensions from pictures and putting them through a computer packaging programme.

 

"It cost a lot of late nights and almost a girlfriend," he says.

 

This is his third Bestival and Mr Whitehurst says the fancy dress gives it a unique atmosphere.

 

"Everyone loses themselves," he says. "People become their characters. You get cowboys chasing Indians around.

 

"People forget themselves and it's a real proper escape. And it's a much more intimate event than the larger festivals. It's great, I'll come back every year."

 

Wearing silver face paint, deely boppers and a rubber ring wrapped in tin foil, Andy Whyles, 31, from Nottingham, had transformed into "an alien in a spacecraft".

 

His costume was a bit quicker to put together.

 

"It took me about 15 minutes," he says. "I think it's great because it creates a bit of camaraderie.

 

"You see people without fancy dress and they look like the outsiders for once. Everyone in fancy dress looks like part of the crew. And it just gets bigger and better every year.

 

"Everybody gets really involved. So much time and effort goes into these costumes."

 

The past five years have seen a boom in boutique festivals, which offer something more intimate and exclusive than the likes of Glastonbury and Reading.

 

To stand out in a crowded summer calendar, these younger festivals must also offer something a bit different - such as a fancy dress parade.

 

Bestival is largely populated by thrill-seeking twenty- and thirty-somethings who want to take time out of real life.

And a friendly nature, compared with its larger rivals, is summed up by Rob Da Bank's request in the programme for fans to "wipe the seat if you sprinkle when you tinkle".

 

Da Bank says his highlight of the weekend was appearing in The Afterburner, a post-apocolyptic, fire-spewing tower allegedly built out of old jet engines.

 

That came after watching German dance pioneers Kraftwerk on the main stage.

 

"I've spent about five years trying to persuade them to come, and finally they came over so that was amazing," he says.

 

"Then I came down here and DJ'd to about 4,000-5,000 people in the Afterburner. There were flames whizzing out of the top of it."

 

Now that Bestival is firmly established as one of the circuit's most in-demand, if unusual, events, Da Bank says he may continue to expand.

 

"I always say we're not going to get any bigger, but now that we've got to this size, I can't necessarily see us stopping."

The visitors to Planet Bestival would not want him to stop. Earth life seems quite mundane in comparison.

Edited by mari62
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Pix of the greatest costumes of the weekend (no Mika)

http://www.gigwise.com/photos/52437/The-Space-Freaks-of-Bestival-2009---Photos

 

Here's the Mika one...don't know if it was posted earlier.

 

http://www.gigwise.com/photos/52442/19/Bestival-2009---Lily-Allen-and-Little-Boots-in-Fancy-Dress

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[

 

 

I didn't see him, which is unusual, as he always comes round for a chat, but he said he was going as he loves going there.

 

Yes, I just wondered as he didn't seem to be in rush to leave on Friday night. Maybe there had been a change of plan.

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Yes, I just wondered as he didn't seem to be in rush to leave on Friday night. Maybe there had been a change of plan.

 

It's not as if Mika didn't know though, I twittered numerous times during the week about being happy to do it, but nothing.

He really should think before he asks theses things, what if there were kids out there who saw the vlog and were going to Bestival, and thought they'd get a chance to be up there? It's all very well spouting these ideas, but unless he's really prepared to follow them through, he shouldn't do it.

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Rose you are right he shouldn't. But I think we've all known Mika long enough to know that his ideas sometimes come rushing out before anyone has sorted out the logistics completely so it's not written in stone just because he's said it.

 

I get a bit nervous that there are people on the forum pressuring others to ask him at recent appearances if he will be going here or doing that in the near future. He is bound to give some vague answer or another that people will pin their hopes on which may or may not be 100% accurate in the end. Best to just wait until dates are formally announced IMO.

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Rose you are right he shouldn't. But I think we've all known Mika long enough to know that his ideas sometimes come rushing out before anyone has sorted out the logistics completely so it's not written in stone just because he's said it.

 

I get a bit nervous that there are people on the forum pressuring others to ask him at recent appearances if he will be going here or doing that in the near future. He is bound to give some vague answer or another that people will pin their hopes on which may or may not be 100% accurate in the end. Best to just wait until dates are formally announced IMO.

 

Okay, to be clear, I wasn't pressurising anyone to do anything.

I mentioned to Andy, that Mika had said in his vlog about wanting Martians on Saturday, and did he know anything about it. He said he didn't (which I found odd, as I thought he was filming it, but maybe not), but it would be a great thing to do. He then told me that he once asked The Flaming Lips if he could dress up and go on stage with them, but it never happened, so it was then HE suggested that we could dress up as martians together, and dance around on stage on Saturday. I said that would be brilliant, and he said that he would sort it out. This was in the early part of the evening just after I'd got there.

Later on just before I left, I spoke to him again, just to ask if Mika had gone, and he said yes, and we started talking about Saturday again, and he said that he would come and find me, to which i said, it's a big field, how would he be able to do that, all he replied was , don't worry, I'll find you. and that was it.

I never cajoled him into any of it, if anything he was more excited at the thought of doing it than I was.

And in the past it's been Andy encouraging me to do stuff, it's never been the other way round, as was the case this time.

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I get a bit nervous that there are people on the forum pressuring others to ask him at recent appearances if he will be going here or doing that in the near future. He is bound to give some vague answer or another that people will pin their hopes on which may or may not be 100% accurate in the end. Best to just wait until dates are formally announced IMO.

 

I think that is completely different though.

The way I see it is that asking him if he is planning to do a show here or there, you simply indicate to him that there are fans in those countries waiting to see him, too.

It's not that he doesn't know but I think he himself might feel good about knowing he is expected to perform in other parts of the world, too.

 

 

As far as expectations go, it simply depends on the individual fan and you can't really control that. I think it is better to live in hope.

Edited by suzie
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Check Out Mika In All His Bestival Glory

 

Mika was the toast of Bestival at the weekend as he wowed the crowds with new material from 'The Boy Who Knew Too Much' and his amazing outfit.

 

Mika was dressed in a full space suit and had his face painted like Ziggy Stardust!

 

Check out these superb pictures of Mika as he performed on the main stage.

 

Out of this world!

 

 

mika_bestival1.jpg

 

mika_bestival2.jpg

 

mika_bestival3.jpg

http://www.authoritydesign.com/mika/mika_bestival.htm

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Rose you are right he shouldn't. But I think we've all known Mika long enough to know that his ideas sometimes come rushing out before anyone has sorted out the logistics completely so it's not written in stone just because he's said it.

 

I get a bit nervous that there are people on the forum pressuring others to ask him at recent appearances if he will be going here or doing that in the near future. He is bound to give some vague answer or another that people will pin their hopes on which may or may not be 100% accurate in the end. Best to just wait until dates are formally announced IMO.

 

Okay, to be clear, I wasn't pressurising anyone to do anything.

I mentioned to Andy, that Mika had said in his vlog about wanting Martians on Saturday, and did he know anything about it. He said he didn't (which I found odd, as I thought he was filming it, but maybe not), but it would be a great thing to do. He then told me that he once asked The Flaming Lips if he could dress up and go on stage with them, but it never happened, so it was then HE suggested that we could dress up as martians together, and dance around on stage on Saturday. I said that would be brilliant, and he said that he would sort it out. This was in the early part of the evening just after I'd got there.

Later on just before I left, I spoke to him again, just to ask if Mika had gone, and he said yes, and we started talking about Saturday again, and he said that he would come and find me, to which i said, it's a big field, how would he be able to do that, all he replied was , don't worry, I'll find you. and that was it.

I never cajoled him into any of it, if anything he was more excited at the thought of doing it than I was.

And in the past it's been Andy encouraging me to do stuff, it's never been the other way round, as was the case this time.

 

Maybe its the typical male thing of opening mouth before engaging brain??!

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Okay, to be clear, I wasn't pressurising anyone to do anything.

 

No that's not what I meant at all Rose. I meant fans in Timbuktu asking other fans talk to Mika at the gigs to find out if he's coming to Timbuktu next month so they can start making travel plans, etc.

 

I heard about your conversations with Andy at the pub so I know you had every reason to think he would at least speak to you about it at Bestival and I understand why you're disappointed. I wish it had worked out better for you. :huglove:

 

Maybe its the typical male thing of opening mouth before engaging brain??!

 

Perhaps :teehee:

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As far as expectations go, it simply depends on the individual fan and you can't really control that. I think it is better to live in hope.

 

If people are just looking for hope I certainly don't want to deny them that but the recriminations and bitterness when Mika doesn't do exactly what they want exactly when they think he should is just really tiresome sometimes. Unless it's a very specific promise to an individual like in Rose's case or a confirmed gig that's been cancelled...well, personally I'm just tired of listening to the moaning all the time.

 

We buy Mika's albums and we buy his concert tickets. The sense of entitlement people feel in return for that is really outrageous sometimes.

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No that's not what I meant at all Rose. I meant fans in Timbuktu asking other fans talk to Mika at the gigs to find out if he's coming to Timbuktu next month so they can start making travel plans, etc.

 

I heard about your conversations with Andy at the pub so I know you had every reason to think he would at least speak to you about it at Bestival and I understand why you're disappointed. I wish it had worked out better for you. :huglove:

 

 

 

Perhaps :teehee:

 

Ah, I understand what you mean.

Like all the comments that clog up Mikasounds and myspace etc?

Yes, I can see how that gets a bit much, except when Babs asks for a Welwyn Garden City gig, that I find hilarious:roftl::roftl::roftl:

And yes, I guess I should have known better, than to think that a man would think, before he said anything:roftl::roftl::roftl:

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Ah, I understand what you mean.

Like all the comments that clog up Mikasounds and myspace etc?

Yes, I can see how that gets a bit much, except when Babs asks for a Welwyn Garden City gig, that I find hilarious:roftl::roftl::roftl:

And yes, I guess I should have known better, than to think that a man would think, before he said anything:roftl::roftl::roftl:

 

Why you laugh at me when I am completely serious? :tears::crybaby:

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