Bestival hailed huge success

1:00pm Thursday 24th July 2008

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THE organisers of the inaugural Camp Bestival event at Lulworth Castle have hailed it as a huge success, despite some teething problems.

The event at the weekend saw 10,000 people descend on the site to watch acts including Chuck Berry, Kate Nash and the Flaming Lips, and organisers are hoping to come back next year.

Billed as a holiday camp-style family event, the festival attracted more than 3,500 under-13s, all attending for free.

The influx of visitors on Friday led to traffic problems around the site and the organiser, radio DJ Rob da Bank, has apologised to those who got stuck.

In a statement, the festival's organisers said: "A high percentage of campers arrived between 9am and 2pm on day one, causing some local congestion, so organisers created and opened additional car parks as soon as possible as a solution to get traffic moving and to save further delays."

Parking charges were waived for those who were held up and extra campsites were opened up as the planned ones filled up more quickly than anticipated.

Some festival-goers were also left disappointed on Sunday when bands played half an hour earlier than advertised.

The reason was the need to make sure the acts finished before the evening curfew, as Saturday's headliners, The Flaming Lips, had cut their set short to finish at 11pm.

"Obviously, big apologies to anybody that didn't hear the tannoy messages and missed the start of any of their favourite acts," said the spokesman.

Organisers also plan to look at how public transport can be better used in future years.

A spokesman for the Lulworth Estate said the festival was a great event and they would discuss it returning next year.

"It was a resounding success. They were very good at their management; obviously there are some issues that they will have to look at for next year.

"It was a great atmosphere for both adults and children. They probably felt they had stepped into a wonderland for a whole weekend."