Bestival

For one weekend in September, DJ Rob Da Bank turns Robin Hill Country Park into a happy valley of wizards, princesses, pirates and blokes in chicken outfits.

Bestival is probably the most eccentric date in the summer festival calendar and this year was bigger, but no less leftfield.

The award-winning boutique festival, which has been running for four years, hosted the biggest fancy dress party in the world on the Saturday.

The theme this year was pirates, aahhh!

Thousands of bestie-goers dressing up to the theme of pirates, wizards, princesses - infact, just about anything.

Headliners

Up on main stage, Sunday night's headline act Primal Scream joined The Chemical Brothers and the Beastie Boys as the three top-name acts for this year's Bestival.

It was the Beastie Boys only English festival appearance this year.

The crowd enjoying the evening sun

There was also a surprise in store for the Bestie goers on Saturday evening as Madness took to the stage.

Other acts on the bill were the attitude-heavy US rock/punk pop outfit Gossip and UK dance legends Soul II Soul Sound System performed a rare live set on the Saturday.

Other acts in the line up over the three days and nights of music, escapism and creativity, included Bat for Lashes, Candi Payne, Robyn, Carl Craig and Mr Scruff.

BBC Introducing...

The BBC Introducing… tent hosted an awe-inspiring selection of up-and-coming artists and live DJ sets from Radio 1’s star collective.

Bastila

Ventnor band Bastila had a 45 minute slot on the Sunday afternoon. Kody from the band said:

"We're really excited about it ... Bestival has such a relaxed atmosphere - it's kinda cool to wander round and see some of the smaller stages with bands you might not have heard of before."

DJs

As well as the many live acts, there was plenty of disc spinning action. Heaving their record boxes over on the ferry were lots of top quality, big name DJs including Francois Kevorkian, Gilles Peterson, Tim Westwood, David Holmes, Justin Robertson, Ben Watt and, not forgetting Bestival's creator himself, local lad Rob Da Bank.

Swimming to Bestival

For Bestie-goers who didn't fancy the Isle of Wight ferry, there was a charity 'Swim2bestival' event with 12 brave souls swimming the three miles across the Solent to get to the festival.

As it turned out, with delays on the Southampton ferries Friday, they got to the festival site quicker than many of the car drivers!

Crazy stuff

What makes Bestival stand out from the average corporate music festival is the huge range of colourful, bizarre and slightly insane activities going on alongside the music.

Visitors could also head to different corners of the globe with Club Da Da Land - from a wedding in Hungary, a Bollywood party in Delhi, to a fish diner on the beach in Jamaica.

Each night it moved into Club Da Da cabaret territory with everything from bizarre surreal exotic performances and circus acts, to Air Guitar Championships and people who live in Balloons(!).

There was also the chance to chill out making clay models, try ballroom dancing and enter the annual moustache and beard growing competition.