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Beach Break Live 2010

By Athina Clarke

What costs a maximum of £89 provides you with 8 miles of gorgeous beach, live music from top artists, numerous affordable and free activities and a variety of food and booze to satisfy?

That'd be Beach Break Live of course! BBL is the student friendly music festival. Having only been around for 3 years previously, it has grown from strength to strength.

From 1000 festival goers in its first year, to 5000 in its second to 10,000 in its third. Now in its fourth year it has attracted 17,500 students to party on 8 miles of beach in sunny South Wales.

Ticket prices were incredibly student friendly and discounts were applied to those with student cards, even if you'd left education as much as three years ago. Talk about generous.

Impressive line up

The festival ran from the 14th -18th of June and boasted an impressive line up including Plan B, Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding, Beardyman, Chase & Status, Annie Mac, Subfocus, and a range of up and coming bands and MCs.

On the main stage on the first night Plan B smashed it with beat boxer Faith SFX. Faith SFX wowed the crowd with his extraordinary talent.

Looking around all I could see were huge smiles on people's faces accompanied by plenty of whooping and cheering at his performance. Plan B worked the crowd from start to finish and performed chart favourite 'She Said' which got everybody singing.

On Wednesday night Calvin Harris was a clear crowd pleaser performing tracks including ‘The Girls’, ‘Acceptable in the 80’s’ and ‘Ready for the Weekend’.

Up and coming band Kid Adrift were impressive. They had a lot of energy on stage and sang their hearts out.

They also did a commendable cover of Deftones’ ‘My Own Summer’ and performed their own tracks including ‘Red Green and Blue’ and ‘Oxytocin’.

Ellie Goulding was brilliant live - very talented on the drums and her live rendition of ‘Under the Sheets’ was well received.

Beardyman had everybody howling with laughter on Thursday. The crowd rushed to the stage and were at his mercy.

His live beatboxing and electronic looping skills kept the crowd entertained for his entire set. It seemed to fly by way too fast, I was sad to see him go.

Chase and Status were the last big act on the last day of the festival. A lot of people were glued to the front of the stage obviously wanting to secure their spot.

MC Rage kept the crowd moshing throughout. They performed old and new material, showing no sign of slowing down.

Merlin's Forest on Tuesday night was incredible. Subfocus and MC ID performed an electric set that had the crowd skanking nonstop; myself included.

The tent was packed to capacity with people even dancing outside.

Exceptional

The funfair was cool too. My friend and I went on the Megaspin ride that almost killed me. It would turn upside down and spin you very fast.

All the other people seemed to be enjoying but after a while I was just trying to not have a heart attack.

The variety of food available at BBL was exceptional. Pretty much every diet was catered for.

The vegetarian side of the festival proved to be quite popular with the guests judging from the long queues. Being lactose intolerant I was still able to enjoy the food available.

There were plenty of alcohol outlets. The drinks of choice among the guests seemed to be Gaymers and Pimms.

If you weren’t drinking you were definitely in the shisha tents. They had a relaxed atmosphere with everybody barefoot listening to reggae music from small bands.

It would be pretty difficult to be bored at BBL.

Affordable activities

If you weren’t at the beautiful beach sunbathing, reading, playing volley ball or streaking (yes, two men decided to strip off much to the delight of those present), you were in the Leaky Sheep watching the World Cup.

That or you were taking part in the pub quiz or you were playing the hilarious Celtic Games; one of which involved donning a sumo man inflatable suit and trying to manoeuvre through an obstacle course.

There were plenty of activities to keep you occupied, affordable or free, such as yoga classes, pole dancing, break dancing, tornado boat rides, go ape, surfing lessons and horse riding lessons. Safe to say there was something for everyone.

The facilities were satisfactory. Despite this it didn’t stop people from relieving themselves in the bushes!

The security at the festival did a good job of keeping everybody safe. You were aware of their presence but it wasn’t overwhelming.

There were plenty of recycling bins around to collect the recyclable waste and also litter pickers on duty working hard to keep the park clean.

Beach Break Live being in its fourth year was very impressive and every student should go at least once. Located in Pembrey Country Park, near a beach was a luxury and I hope BBL can call it their permanent home.

I will definitely go next year.

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