5-Jul-2008
Written by: Marshall Burns

ZOO8 in England does well in its first year running as a festival.

Zoo festival has become the first music festival in a zoo. ZOO8 is to take place at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park near Ashford in Kent, United Kingdom. The festivalgoers and the actual savage keepers are actually kept apart though.

The gimmick seemed to work on the festival’s first day. Mark Ronson and his band came on stage wearing a monkey mask and other members of his band had other masks on that they had recently gotten from a gift shop. They told the crowd that 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,” reported the BBC.

ZOO8 attendees had a great time, even just a week after Glastonbury. But this festival appealed to a much younger and narrower crowd than the people who attended the flagship festivals. The crowd was full of students letting off steam. There were eight stages full of music so fans could get their thrills whenever they wanted, as well as fairground rides, according to the BBC.

The music was really important to the crowd which was apparent because of the murmurs from the crowds about stewards telling people the wrong things, and not enough signs posted, as well as a lack of toilets. A fan from the crowd said to the BBC, “I think it will do well in a couple of years when they know what they’re doing.”