BBL09 Review

Beach Break 2009
It was the festival that was never supposed to have happened, yet despite having to fight for its survival just a week before it all kicked off, the sun still shone bright over Beach Break 2009.
The sold out festival faced massive adversity, when the Cornish site of St Agnes rejected planning permission just seven days before the event. But the team at Beach Break Live worked extremely hard and managed to move the whole festival 300 miles to the stunning Port Lympne Safari Park in Kent. With built-in beaches and palm trees, this festival was determined to bounce back and become the best student festival of 2009.
10,000 students from all across the UK came together for the biggest student party of the summer. Now in its third year, the festival boasted an impressive line up, from Dizzee Rascal to The Zutons, and the site provided guests with three huge pools, beach volley ball, and beautiful mounds of fresh white sand. As well as the bands, there was a Ferris wheel, a skate park and acrobats all ready to entertain the thousands of eager students.
Other big-names on the bill included Ladyhawke, Mystery Jets and Friendly Fires, which caused an excited stir amongst music fans during the three-day bash.
Although the festival lost its beautiful Cornish coastline, festival goers were given a real treat with the move. Conveniently located next to Port Lympne safari park, ticket holders were granted free entry. Surrounded by Zebras and Rhinos, students grazed lazily alongside the animals, a surreal but exciting experience for everyone that visited the beautiful park.

The festival kicked off in style with the best set of the day undoubtedly going to Friendly Fires. The St Albans 3 piece performed an electric set to an eager crowd who were not left disappointed. After the gig they spoke highly of supporting the main act Mystery Jets, ‘We love Mystery Jets; they’re really lovely lads and have genuinely good music.’
And as headliners, the MJ’s did not disappoint. Playing a selection of beautifully crafted old and new songs, fans were able to sing along as well as experience what the band has to offer in the future. I asked the band if they preferred the larger festivals to smaller gigs, ‘We like doing both really, at festivals you get the really big crowds, but the smaller gigs are more intimate, and it’s darker, so you can play around with the lighting and stuff, and put on more of a show for people, but we do love festivals.’
Other highlights of the day included VV Brown, whose big brassy 50’s inspired sound, ripped through the site and converted just about everyone within a 5 mile radius. You can get your hands on her debut album ‘Travelling like the Light’, at the end of July.
Moving on to Wednesday, stand out sets came from Dan Black, who described his sound as ‘a mix of modern, slightly experimental hip hop, production, meets kind of slightly sad, big beats, film, soundtracky sound.’ Err...Ok Dan! Also Hadouken! delivered a crazy, upbeat performance to what can only be described as ‘mental’ fans. Expectations were high as Jamie from the band confesses that the greatly anticipated second album will be completely different from the first. ‘Yeah, I mean there is quite a change, I don’t really want to really talk it up too much, but essentially yeah, there is a few elements, because it has been produced by ‘Noisia’ in Holland, it does sound completely different to our first album.’
Night fell, and The Zutons took to the stage. Having been away for some time now, the Liverpudlian quintet still managed to capture the crowd with their bluesy pop melodies. And playing out such classic songs such as ‘Valerie’, and ‘Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love’, by the time they’d finished, the band left the crowd feeling like they’d experienced something truly magical.
Dawn broke on the final day of Beach Break 2009, and everyone in the camp could talk about only one person, Dizzee Rascal. Already tipped to be the highlight of the festival, nearly all of the 10,000 ticket holders crammed into the main arena to see the rapper, who promised to bring ‘a lot of energy’ to the stage. He said, ‘It’s gonna be bonkers!’ And the crowd was given a real treat. Playing hit after hit, as well as a few tracks of his new album ‘Tongue ‘n’ Cheek’, which is out in September, it was a fast paced, energetic set that got everyone on their feet.
Other best bits of the day included Ladyhawke, the indie pop New Zealander who performed to a massive crowd, and ensured that music fans all over the site, were nicely warmed up for their headliner.
Other highlights included the Boat Stage. Originally designed as a platform dedicated to finding new talent in Cornwall, the Boat was crammed full of lesser known, but hugely talented bands.
The Dance tent had mixed reviews this year, as some complained that it was too quiet, but most of the acts succeeded in making an impression, starting off with Chase and Status performing a knockout set on Tuesday night. Kyle from Chester Uni said, ‘Scratch Perverts and DJ Yoda were immense’. So it would seem that the volume was less important to most music fans, and more about the quality of the music that was played.
The travelling Chai Wallah tent was a huge success over the week with its weird and wonderful herbal drinks and shots. Manager Emily Katsuno said she was surprised at how many students were up for trying new things, and she said they were, ‘really into the herbal stuff!’
A beautiful beach, tropical weather, and most importantly pretty damn good music was what made Beach Break 2009 a huge success, it seems hard to believe that all of this was pulled off in just over a week. A miracle the event happened at all, but moving 10,000 students and a huge festival 300 miles across the country seemed to work, and what we ended up with was one of the biggest and best student parties of the year. We just hope that BBL 2010 runs a little bit smoother!