Music fans go wild at zoo festival

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By Ian Youngs Music reporter, BBC News at the Zoo8 festival

The zoo theme was a hit with some of the fans in the crowdIt has been billed as the first music festival in a zoo. Unfortunately, there are no monkeys in the moshpit at Zoo8 - but the humans are going wild.

With so many festivals on the summer calendar, every new event needs to stand out.

And Zoo8, taking place next to Port Lympne wild animal park near Ashford in Kent, has shamelessly played on its location to grab attention.

But the festivalgoers don't mingle with monkeys or rub shoulders with rhinos - a road and a few decent fences separate the animals in the zoo from their distant cousins in the festival.

The fans can visit, but otherwise the zoo thing is purely a gimmick and the two sets of savage creatures are kept well apart.

It is a pretty ridiculous gimmick at that, but it seemed to work pretty well on the festival's first day.

Mark Ronson came on to the festival stage wearing a monkey maskThe headliner, guitarist and producer Mark Ronson, took to the stage wearing a monkey mask.

Members of his band had tiger masks while others carried parrot puppets, all of which looked like they had been recently looted from the gift shop.

Telling the crowd they were the "loudest for a long time", the Brit Award winner said he was "only going to play zoos from now on - tell my tour manager".

He was getting into the spirit, although telling fans to "go ape" three times was at least twice too many.

Rhythm and boos

The crowd were intent on a party, and seemed as unconcerned about the absence of big-name guests from Ronson's set as they were about the lack of big game from the festival site.

A car was tipped over as part of one of the festival's "unorthodox" sportsRonson is now a big enough star to carry the show on his own, and has the stage skills to whip up the punters while his array of vocalists took turns fronting the world's most successful covers band.

The crowd were less impressed earlier when it was announced at the last minute that Friday's penultimate act, rapper Dizzee Rascal, had pulled out.

Boos and beer cans rained on to the stage as the UK hip-hop star - who is likely to go to number one in the singles chart on Sunday - was one of the main draws for the festival.

Another British rapper, Lethal Bizzle, had been due to play on a smaller stage but stepped into Dizzee's slot and, after a pause to assess how likely he was to get bottled off, went on to save the day.

A brazen stage presence and buckets of bravado helped him turn around what could have been a sticky situation, and by the end he proved his own star quality by whipping up one of the best reactions of the day.

Young crowd

The Zoo8 crowd were there to have a good time, and a troupe of tapdancing tapirs could have elicited screams from the excitable girls down the front.

A week after Glastonbury, this tribe was much younger and narrower than the flagship festivals, giving the atmosphere a hedonistic edge.

The festival's line-up was praised, but the organisation was notMost of the punters were made up of students letting off steam, while beered-up blokes looking for escape stumbled into teenage girls wearing denim hot pants and big, bright shades.

As well as the eight music stages, fans could get their thrills on fairground rides such as the Cannon Ball - a flying bungee pod - and the Freak Out - a giant swinging arm flinging people around.

Or there were the less orthodox festival sports of wheelie bin vaulting and car tipping - an old banger that was used as a prop for a stunt bike rider didn't last long.

This was the first day of the first Zoo8 festival, and while fans were enjoying the line-up, a general air of disorganisation hung over the event.

I think it will do well in a couple of years when they know what they're doing Music fan Liz James

Those arriving on Friday faced queues of up to five hours to get into the site, while the main arena opened two hours late - at 1600 BST - meaning the first two acts were bumped from the bill.

Other gripes included the lack of water taps in the camping fields, with fans saying the only sources of water were water butts with signs saying: "Boil before use."

Murmurs from the crowd also mentioned stewards telling people the wrong things, not enough signposting and insufficient toilets.

"The organisation is dismal," said 26-year-old Rachel Hasler.

"We try to do festivals that we've never been to before and local ones to check them out. We've been to three this year and every one has been the first year they've put it on.

The main stage of the event near Ashford had a leafy look"Obviously the music's really important but I don't mind if I haven't heard the bands as long as it's well organised."

Most fans live nearby, and were attracted by the convenience and small scale - although on Friday the event appeared to be short of its 20,000 capacity.

"When we went to Glastonbury it took us 12 hours to get home," says Nico Barclay, 26, from London. "I prefer things smaller.

"At Glastonbury, when you leave your tent you've got to take everything with you. It's like you're going on a mission. But here your tent's 10 minutes away."

Most festivalgoers seemed willing to forgive the problems once the music was going.

"I think it will do well in a couple of years when they know what they're doing," said one crowd member, Liz James.

The event can thank the zoo for helping it get noticed - but the fans will decide if it can become king of the swingers in the festival jungle.