Oxfam returned to Bestival in full force, bringing back GROW, Oxfam’s campaign for food justice. Right now, in a world where your local supermarket is part of a multi billion pound empire, one in seven people on the planet still face hunger. But there are plenty of ways that people across the UK and throughout the world are doing food differently, and our team of campaign volunteers will be sharing these, and inviting festival-goers to get involved in creating personalised images to show their support for the fairer ways of doing food.

In addition Oxfam brought back its fantastic festival shop. Here hundreds of happy festival-goers will once again be able to buy the latest in festival fashion – hand-picked by Oxfam’s expert team especially for Bestival – and raise thousands to support Oxfam’s work across the world.

Oxfam organiser Cassie said ; “Bestival goers were brilliant as always – excitable and up for everything, and they really showed us their passion for making food a fairer thing. Our volunteers and I were blown away by the interest, questions and ideas that came from people all over the site, and the fancy dress made our photos some much more special – check out the zebras below!

The rest of the photos are on our facebook to spread Bestival goer’s ideas further than the festival site – we’ve had a great response so far through these photos and email which will help spread the message and get more people involved.

Also, as ever, a huge thank you from our shop team for helping us raise money to help fight poverty around the world – and kit up those festival goers for those cold nights and ‘wild’ days. Most importantly, rails of fabulous fancy-dress”

oxfam.org.uk

This year, Bestival helped us spread the word about our Big Dig Appeal which will bring clean water and sanitation to over 134,000 people in Malawi. Over 2000 Bestivalites had their photo taken at our Malawian themed marquee, wearing our fancy dress costumes to support the Appeal.

www.wateraid.org/uk

Amnesty International embraced the wildlife theme at this year’s Bestival, with their campaign to Free Pussy Riot! Three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot have been jailed for two years simply for performing a protest song in a Cathedral.

Over 70 artists pledged their support and had their photo taken with an Amnesty ‘Free Pussy Riot’ placard. Support from Bestival artists was phenomenal: Beardyman wore the Free Pussy Riot t-shirt and ended his set with dancers on stage wearing the Pussy Riot trademark balaclavas. Kate Nash had a Free Pussy Riot banner and called for their release during her set. Alabama Shakes dedicated a song to them. Clock Opera had the ‘Free Pussy Riot’ placard on stage during their set and started up a ‘Free Pussy Riot’ chant with the audience! Miike Snow had Free Pussy Riot on their bass drum.

The Pussy Riot appeal date is set for Monday 1 October. Now many artists – including First Aid Kit and The XX are using their social networks to post their Amnesty Pussy Riot placard photo with a new campaign action calling for their release. This solidarity means so much – we received this special message of thanks from Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova: "Thank you everyone for your support. It is important to keep raising awareness about the case and to keep encouraging your fans to take action. I encourage you, as artists, to use your talents to highlight the case through creative means… I ask you to utilize your artistic skills to draw awareness to Free Pussy Riot! I want to say thank you to Amnesty… who have been rallying for this case, and I thank you for all of your support.” You can add your voice and call for their freedom here.

Also, once again this year Bestival collaborated with Mr Trolley and Amnesty International. Thanks to everyone who used the Mr Trolley trolley hire service, by doing so you helped raise money for Amnesty International and awareness of the continued global challenges they face everyday.

amnesty.org

This Summer Childreach International took a diversion from our normal cycle routes across India, and from Vietnam to Cambodia, to bring our pedal power to Bestival – cycling to charge your mobile phones! 20 volunteers, 4 campsite hubs and 300 photos later, we’re proud to announce that we charged just over 2000 of your mobile phones throughout the course of the festival – 100% carbon neutrally of course! At the same time many of you took part in our ‘When I Grow Up’ Photo Campaign comparing your aspirations to the kids we work with around the world. Thanks to all who got involved, especially those of you intrepid enough to get involved with the pedalling!

www.childreach.org.uk

Bestival provided Save the children with a marquee for their ‘pop up shop’ and the local volunteers from our Ryde shop who staffed the shop over the weekend. We were selling the weird, wacky and wonderful clothes donated locally to our Ryde shop. The weirder it was the better the festival goers liked it, selling everything from Top Hats & Tails to Wedding & bridesmaid dresses. As the theme was wildlife anything with an animal print on it went in the first few hours. Our younger volunteers also did face painting which was a great success and did their bit in turning many people into the animal of their choice.
We pitched ourselves as a local charity shop with local volunteers which went down very well with customers whether they came from near or far.

www.savethechildren.org.uk

Cowes RNLI attended Bestival this year, during this time the crew interacted with Bestival goers in several ways. Running competitions throughout the 4 days like get you kit on. This was where the fastest time to put a crew dry suit and life jacket on won a t-shirt (Bryony 33 seconds,) Throughout the day crew members run educational talks about Flares, life-jackets, PPE, and basic sea safety. The RNLI also provided a simulator for the public to use to see what its like to drive a all weather lifeboat, This was popular with all age groups from 8- 40.

www.cowes-lifeboat.org.uk

The Legacy Team had a fantastic time in the beautiful sunshine at Bestival 2012, running t-shirt decorating sessions, face painting and teaching hula hooping and poi skills to the hundreds of visitors that came to the Legacy tent. The team raised over £1,000 for the Legacy Project, a charity that provides opportunities for young people in disadvantaged communities to step up, take responsibility and deliver positive impact projects locally. For more information visit www.legacyproject.org.uk.

www.legacyproject.org.uk

The Footprint Trust entertained Bestival goers with its ever popular ‘Poo in the Loo’ game – regular customers coming back to play for the third year! Picture shows FT volunteer Elliott Ryan encouraging people to play the game…some 400 people played and pledged to go home and save water. The aim of the game is to raise awareness of water conservation issues in the UK and Isle of Wight. The Bestival Foundation supports the Footprint Trust’s work in Island schools. To date thousands of children have benefited from their fun workshops and a wonderful free Bestival water bottle.

www.footprint-trust.co.uk

At Bestival 2012, the International Tree Foundation (ITF) held a stall where festival go-ers enjoyed decorating their used plastic bottles with spray paints, glitter and feathers. These bottles were then used to build eye catching recycled tree sculptures in the Ambient Wood. The stall was very busy over the weekend and overall we managed to create two giant tree sculptures.

www.internationaltreefoundation.org

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) this year brought a creative touch to its marquee at Bestival with a ‘Peace Painting Competition’. Festival-goers got their creative juices flowing by painting CND symbols with peaceful messages and beautiful imagery – and the gorgeous weather to lounge about in didn’t hurt either! By the end of the weekend the decorated symbols had been used to adorn the marquee and surrounding area to create an eye-catching ‘peace garden’ which was a wonderful snapshot of the breadth of artistic talent and peaceful sentiment in the Bestival crowd! Hurrah for Bestival and everyone who came to paint!

www.cnduk.org

The White Ribbon Campaign brought their mission to end violence against women and girls to Bestival 2012. The group of people most at risk of domestic abuse, rape and stalking in the UK are young women aged between 16-18. Hundreds of Bestival goers said ‘NO’ to violence and abuse and helped to create a massive hand print banner under the headline ‘These Hand’s Don’t Hurt’ – pledging with their hand prints to never to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls.

www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk

Breast Cancer Campaign had another fantastic year at the festival as part of our Isle of Pink month of activities on the island. Our giant ‘Play your cards right’ game was a big success with contestants battling it out to win tickets to next year’s festival. We also got lots of people into the pink spirit with face painting, pink doughnuts and fancy dress items.

www.breastcancercampaign.org

Sea Shepherd had a roving representative at Bestival this year. It was received really well, they carried the flag for Sea Shepherd and handing out stickers. Sea shepherd were really pleasantly surprised at how many people approached us to talk about Sea Shepherd’s important work around the World and to volunteer for crew. A lot of people knew about us and what we do.

www.seashepherd.org

CoppaFeel!‘s boob monkeys were out in force at Bestival telling the masses about their new ’Coppafeel in the shower’ campaign. Festival revelers had the chance to step inside their giant inflatable boob where the team super-imposed them into a shower via their photo booth to help spread the message of the importance of getting to know your boobs whilst your already starkers! Boob tattoo transfers, shower stickers and wristbands were also on offer, all acting as the perfect reminder to give your boobs some attention.

www.coppafeel.org

This year at Bestival Pants to Poverty smashed another Guinness world record (claim still pending) with 320 people crammed into one pair of pants at the mainstage on Sunday. One pantlover inside the giant pants said “One minute I was lying in the sun with a sore head, then next minute I was in my pants smashing a world record rubbing up with 320 other people! A truly pantastic Bestival moment!”. Pants to Poverty’s pants are beautiful from cotton to bottom proving how fashion can change the world with the thousands of farmers and factory workers that work with in India. They organised the stunt to help promote their amazing BONK OF PANTS campaign returning 10.2% interest to all bonkers supporting the campaign!

www.pantstopoverty.com

The Earl Mountbatten Hospice would like to thank the Bestival for allowing us to come and sell Sunflowers, this year we raised an amazing £8,200, over the 6 years we have been attending a total of £47,000 has been raised for our patient care. We are very grateful for the Bestival continued support for the Islands Hospice.

www.iwhospice.org

The Pamper Lounge raised £700 towards the Barely Born Appeal this year by donating profits after costs to help sick and premature babies at the St Mary’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

www.barelyborn.co.uk