Back when he was the baron of big beat, Fatboy Slim surely can’t have imagined that he’d one day look down from the stage and see clusters of families with camp chairs, politely rocking out to his monster grooves.
He certainly could not have imagined that the big talking point after one of his gigs would be seating arrangements. Yet this was the topic of conversation after this weekend’s Camp Bestival, where happy families were claiming plots of land like 19th-century frontiersmen in the American West, setting up camping chairs and rugs in front of the main stage first thing. More annoying yet – they were then toddling off for the afternoon, expecting that their territorial grab would be respected by other festival-goers. It was like being on a sunny holiday where bathers are up at the crack of dawn to bagsie a lounger – only with mud and flying beer instead of golden rays.
Camp Bestival, at Lulworth Castle in Dorset, is part of an upswell / epidemic of “family friendly” festivals – because there is nothing your five-year-old enjoys more than being lugged around a pasture at 1am listening to 1990s rave.
The territorial habits of families – akin to those who fight for sunbeds on an all-inclusive holiday – are ruining the vibe at festivals (Photo: Janice Chen)
