Bestival is a three-day, action-packed music festival held every year at Robin Hill Country Park on the beautiful Isle of Wight. The bash is well-known for being one of the final music festivals to be squeezed out of the last of the summer months, and this year Bestival will be taking place appropriately late – between Friday 11th to Sunday 13th September.

The festival initially started out 5 years ago and has grown in both size and popularity since then. The brainchild of Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank, Bestival is renowned for both it’s diverse line ups as well as it’s super fun atmosphere.

Headliners confirmed for this year’s event include Elbow, Massive Attack and Kraftwerk. Other quite simply amazing acts taking to the stage this 2009 include (and we stress, include!) MGMT, Fleet Foxes, Doves, Seasick Steve, Klaxons, Lily Allen, Friendly Fires, Florence and the Machine, Little Boots, Esser, Passion Pit, Chew Lips, La Roux and Jack Penate.

Meanwhile, DJs who’ll be spinning the decks at the Isle of Wight bash this year include Annie Mac, Huw Stephens, Zane Lowe and the boss himself, Rob da Bank.

Yet this is only a minuscule look into the massive selection of artists and DJs confirmed for this year’s event. You can grab the complete line-up over at Bestival’s website by hitting this link.

But music, no matter how impressive the line up may be, isn’t completely what this festival is about. Bestival is also a celebration of fun, and this year looks set to be one hell of a party.

Every year, for example, the festival has a fancy dress theme, and this 2009 the theme is ‘outer space’! So why not visit ‘The Dressing Up Area’, complete with a ‘Pimp My Outfit Booth’ to adorn yourself in such clothing wonderment while at the festival?

If fancy dress isn’t your thing, how about you check out ‘Heavenly Healing’ or ‘The Pamper Lounge’, two beautifully relaxing retreats providing festival-goers with a range of therapeutic treatments between their sweaty head banging sessions.

Other delights you can experience while at this dreamy festival include the tasty treats of ‘Buttercupcakes Afternoon Tea Hut’, the dizzying heights of the ‘The Big Wheel’, the jam-packed ‘The Village’ (complete with a farmers market and sushi stall!), ‘The Kids Garden’ for wee festival goers, and the famous ‘Inflatable Church’ should you fancy getting married along the way!

Wow! So, to learn more about this rollercoster of a festival, check out Bestival’s website. An adult weekend ticket for the event costs £140, and this includes camping. Tickets are still available for the fest and can be purchased from most ticket outlets. Check out the site for more information on where to purchase yours. Have fun!

Top photo is taken from alex_lee2001’s flickr stream under the Creative Commons License.

The first of this week’s on sales have been announced, with The Twang, Klaxons and Athlete all announcing dates that are on sale on Friday morning at 9am, with the exception of The Twang, which are on sale at 9am on Thursday (apparently). Expect them all to sell out very quickly.

One of my favourite bands of the moment, those Brum lads The Twang, are off on their biggest tour to date. They play:

Newcastle Carling Academy – Monday 8 October
Middlesbrough Town Hall – Thursday 11 October
Liverpool University – Friday 12 October
Sheffield Octagon – Sunday 14 October
Manchester Academy – Monday 15 October
Preston Uni 53 Degrees – Tuesday 16 October
Loughborough University – Thursday 18 October
Leeds University – Saturday 20 October
Birmingham Carling Academy – Thursday 25 October
London Brixton Academy – Friday 26 October
Exter University – Wednesday 31 October

Everyone’s favourite psychedelic lovers, Klaxons, are on tour. They play:

Manchester Apollo – Monday 26 November
Newcastle Carling Academy – Wednesday 28 November
Leeds University Union – Saturday 1 December
Birmingham Carling Academy – Tuesday 4 December
Brixton Academy London – Wednesday 5 December

London pansies Athlete have announced a pretty major tour, covering most of the UK in the first half of October this year.

Nottingham Rock City – Tuesday 2 October
Leeds University – Wednesday 3 October
Birmingham Carling Academy – Thursday 4 October
Newcastle Carling Academy – Sunday 7 October
Bristol Carling Academy – Monday 8 October
Southampton Guildhall – Wednesday 10 October
London Shepherds Bush Empire – Thursday 11 October
London Shepherds Bush Empire – Friday 12 October
Manchester Carling Academy – Sunday 14 October
Liverpool Carling Academy – Monday 15 October
Norwich UEA – Wednesday 17 October
Lincoln Engine Shed – Thursday 18 October

Photo of Klaxons taken from Daniel Heaf’s flickr stream

This week there’s a distinct lack of albums I’m interested in coming out, and I have a depressing amount of work to do for uni exams etc, so I’m playing Video DJ (ahh, the joys of youtube!)

I’m aware that there are new albums by the likes of Pigeon Detectives and Mumm-Ra out this week, but I haven’t had a chance to listen to them yet, so I’ve got a range of new bands that I like at the moment and put up their singles…

So, after the jump, find a selection of the best indie pop videos I like at the moment… it saves time and yet still looks like I’ve done a full post… classy Phil! We’ve got The Hoosiers, Ghosts, The Holloways, The Twang and Klaxons all with videos, and represent my 5 favourite songs of this week.

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