大象传媒

Bestival sold out in record time this year, so we just had to be on the Isle of Wight in person to bring you the atmosphere and spirit of the last big festival of the summer.

Phil Jackson in the porta-studio

As it turned out the weather was more like the height of winter with constant downpours for much of the previous week turning the Robin Hill Country park into one big muddy swamp.

When we arrived on Friday, Bestival Boss Rob Da Bank was frantically helping to put down temporary plastic matting with his bare hands - good on him!

While this was not the muddiest festival I've done South:Live from (but not far off) it was without doubt the most challenging.

Thomas Tantrum

The team began to arrive on site with high hopes on Friday afternoon, but by Saturday night, every bit of content that had been planned before setting off to the Isle of Wight was literally washed away in a torrent of mud.

The 大象传媒 Introducing stage was located at the lowest point of the festival site, which meant that every single raindrop that fell over the weekend eventually ended up back-stage ... where our temporary studio was located.

All the Bestie-goers seemed to be enjoying themselves despite the elements, but a muddy torrent suddenly appeared after a downpour and shorted out the generators that supplied power to the 大象传媒 Introducing stage - knocking it out for good for the rest of Friday night.

It did provide a bit of light entertainment for the crew, who played "Pooh Sticks" with various bits of festival flotsam and jetsam.

Hugo Frusslinki

After more rain on Saturday, the tides of mud seems to take on a life of their own - engulfing everything in their wake, like something from a horror film.听

Despite all of the odds (and with a bit of prodding and many cups of tea ), the show went on with all of the South:Live team going well and truly above and beyond the call of duty- often in extremely harsh (and occasionally downright disgusting) conditions.听

Muddy bits and all, South:Live made it to air and if you want to re-live the chaos you can do so at you leisure here.听

The porta live lounge sessions were engineered by Al Scott, and the field recordings were recorded by Indy Almouth Wright, Stephen Stafford and Kairen Kemp who was also the porta-live lounge studio producer.听 The show would not have gone on without all of their hard work, and for that they have my deepest gratitude.

Live sessions

Three local bands ploughed through the mud to get to our porta-live lounge.

The Isle of Wight's Hugo Frusslinki were chosen by Rob da Bank to open Bestival last summer with a Friday afternoon set on the main stage.听

At the time the band only had a one song repertoire (which was the one they sent in) so they were inspired to write subsequent material out of the pure necessity of the gig.听

Their performance in 2007 prompted Rob to re-book them for Bestival 2008 on the Bandstand stage.听 Unfortunately this was cancelled due to flooding, so their un-plugged performance in the Porta-live lounge was their only musical outing at Bestival 2008.

Six Nation State

Six Nation State from Southampton were originally booked to do an un-plugged session with us when South:Live was (attempting) to broadcast live form Guilfest 2007.

As a sudden downpour scuppered their session, we were determined to get them back into the porta-live lounge come hell or high water (which there was plenty of) after their set on the 大象传媒 Introducing Stage at Bestival.听

The band are back in the studio after an 18 month tour working on their second album, and lead singer Gerry's Mum is one of the toughest critics of his lyrics.

Thomas Tantrum are veterans of the 大象传媒 Introducing stage - performing at outings at both Reading and Leeds Festivals and Bestival.听

Famous fans of the band include Lilly Allen and the Futureheads, and they are currently on tour supporting band of the moment Glasvegas.听 Once they've washed the mud off from the weekend, the band are off on an UK tour.