Festival Review - Beach Break Live 2009
Tuesday 16th until Friday 19th June 2009 @ Port Lympne Safari Park, Kent
Featuring Performances From: Friendly Fires, Hadouken, The Whip, Ladyhawke, The Mystery Jets, The Zutons, Dizzee Rascal, The Cuban Brothers, Killa Kella, Scratch Perverts, Krafty Kuts, DJ Yoda
As we all know, the summer only truly begins when the festival season kicks off; however, in the case of Beach Break Live Festival (BBL) this heralds the end of something more important for its patrons. BBL is a student only music festival and it marks the end of the academic year, or even the end of University altogether! For everyone involved there is always a lot to celebrate but this year, all hasn’t gone strictly to plan.
Originally planned to be held in Polzeath, Cornwall (as it has done for the last 2 years), the lovely folks of the Cornish Council decided they didn’t want BBL any more and they only told the organisers a fortnight before the festival began! Stuck in a corner, the good folks at BBL silently flipped the bird at the Cornish coastline and managed to find a welcoming new home in the lovely surroundings of the Lympne Safari Park, Kent. You would not have guessed all trouble they went through but at the end of it all, the site looked fantastic and had such a friendly vibe to it.
Almost 10,000 students came to BBL 2009 and it was great to see that there was so much more to this festival than serving drinks to the already drunk. The activities ranged from giant chess and Zorbing assault courses to street dance and Parkor workshops. The many tents and stages were incredibly varied but all bursting at the seams with smiling punters. The Moustache Bar housed many forms of entertainment including the silent disco and comedy club headlined by the hilariously crude Lou Cox and situated near the chilled out Secret Gardens was Granny’s Gaff where the staff dress up as pensioners and serve you tea and cakes.
The best kept secret though was the drum & bass tent provided by none other than Bristolian promoters and DJ’s Nu. Clear Sounds. This was one of the best places to go after the headliners at the main stage had finished. The only way to find it was to crawl through a small tunnel on your hands and knees which gave the experience even more character!
The main stage was the place to see some of the hottest bands and acts of right now. We had blistering sets from Friendly Fires, Hadouken, The Whip and Ladyhawke to name but a few. Headliners The Mystery Jets, The Zutons and Dizzee Rascal all gave legendary performances; although The Zutons seemed a little sceptical of the crowd at first, they seemed to warm to them after a few songs. The UK’s number 1 artist, Dizzee Rascal, had the crowd in the palm of his hand as soon as he stepped onto the stage and everyone was bouncing to his freestylings of M.I.A’s hit, Paper Planes, and he ended the festival perfectly with his infectious summer hit, Bonkers.
The most entertaining performances for me came from The Cuban Brothers and Killa Kella. The Cuban Brothers had us all in stitches with their impressive break dances and constant jokes at their own expense. Lead singer Miguel ended their set by streaking butt naked across the site still with the crowd screaming for an encore while the humble Killa Kella showed everyone why he is the world’s number 1 beat boxer. He wowed the growing crowd by covering songs such as Macon’s Beggin’ and J-Lo’s Get Right using just his perfectly crafted beat box talents.
The only disappointment of the festival for me was the dance tent: The sound was so poor in the evenings that I could hold a normal conversation in the middle of the tent. Also, even some of the most respected DJ’s like Scratch Perverts, Krafty Kuts and DJ Yoda felt the need to break out the same six dubstep tracks I had been hearing all week. I can only assume rehashing the same dubstep guff was strictly ‘for the kids’ but coupled with such poor sound made it hard to enjoy.
Beach Break Live was one of the most vibrant and chilled out festivals I have ever been to and I urge any students to attend next year, where ever it may be by then! If you are a student it should be an essential part of your calendar and an unmissable excuse to party hard!
Stu Freeman
Copyright © 2008
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:09 am
Gutting about the dance tent, Bloom was like this last year! Crap bags!!
June 29th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Beach Break Live was a poor excuse of a British music festival. Poor planning resulted in the festival being moved away from the beautiful sands of Cornwall to a large field next to a smelly safari park on the other side of the South Coast in Kent - and they only told us a week before the event was due to start! The Campsite was dirty and loud exhalling illegal gas ballon canisters were heard throughout the night. The Dance area was probably the worst music tent I have ever been in and I doubt many will claim that status in the future, to use the phrase “I can barely hear myself talk” would be a serious exagguration of the sound levels within that old blue worn down marque - and some nights everything finsihed at 1:30am!! Extremely early for a supposed dubstep festival a concern which was voiced by many fellow unhappy festival goers. The student friendly prices were completely ignored across all of the food stalls with the average price of £5 per meal and a sneaky twist in advertisement of Monday 15th-19th friday of june - There was only entertainment for one hour on the Friday and that was from 12:00am-1:00am! Cheap tickets although added expenses of £10 per person parking fee which totaled the damage to around £100 a pop. Alas one pro amongst all of these deserved cons Dizzie Rascal’s performance was fantastic and attracted the best crowd of the FOUR days. However after this years plan B attempt I doubt Dizzie will be coming back to Kent/Cornwall/??? next summer, nor will I and nor will my reccomendations go out to anybody looking to Beach Break Live as their choice of festival in the sunny months of 2010.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Hi Ash,
Sorry you didnt enjoy the festival….. just a few points
1. The festival had to be moved, it was regretful and horrible to manage this so close the the event date I am sure, it was an issue with the council, the good people who organised this can not be blamed, they were more gutted than anyone.
2. Gas cannisters - go to ANY festival and you will see this is commonplace, 4 years ago laughing gas became mainstream, as sad as that may be, it a fact of life!!! They are also not illegal!
3, 1.30am is pretty late for a festival on an inclosed site. Glasto main music finished at 12….. then they have the silent disco, a sign of the times my friend, thats the law nower days. And you should be thankful it was loud….. why are you complaining about that??? ITS A FESTIVAL!
4, Food is food at a festival dude, they are hardly going to charge you union prices now are they??????
You esriously need to get a grip, you make your own experience and manage your own fun! I bet you had a crap time you miserable SOD!!
June 30th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Hey Ash,
Just saw your ‘review’ of beach break and have been compelled to write something in response! I was a rep for beach break this year and know a lot more than you and really just wanted to say your SO WRONG! Beach break is literally the best festival in the uk and i can only assume you’ve never been to a festival before and therefore have no idea what you’re talking about or have some sort of negative disposition. I would mainly like to correct so many of your wrongs:
The ents finished at 2am every night (not 1.30am) and that is late compared to most festival - most festivals finish at 11! and what was wrong with the dance tent! It was amazing and what did you expect - a wooden structure? I imagine you would have preferd if the marque was pink! and also - when has Beach break ever said it was a dubstep festival??
Prices - this is why I think you’ve never been to a festival. All of their food was under a fiver and drinks were 2.50. I’ve never had such cheap food and drink at a festival.
15th-19th June??? Where did you get that? if you check their website http://www.beachbreaklive.com it quite clearly states 16th-19th June! They allow people to arrive a day early to set up and said they would hold a pyjama party that night - exactly what they did!
Finally - your highly annoying comment on Dizzee! As if you would know! According to everyone Dizzee and Ladyhawke said they Beach break was the best gigs they’ve ever done.
Hopefully wont see you at beach break next year!