Family fun at Camp Bestival
At the start of this year I had a chat with Rob about our summer plans. We fancied a holiday abroad (thanks to Heart FM we’re off to Florida next month!) and a trip to a family friendly festival – Camp Bestival was top of our wishlist. Throughout June and July I was busy searching Google and Twitter for competitions – beavering away with Ryland to create an Arsenal themed spacesuit and a video about the Jurassic coast, but with no luck!
Finally a couple of weeks ago I got a Direct Message on Twitter from Indesit – I’d won a trip to Camp Bestival in their Twitter RT draw – hooray!
We set off from Brighton at 7am on Friday morning, and by 11.30am we’d put up the tent, inflated the airbeds and were relaxing in our camping chairs with a cold beer – nice work!
We had glorious sunshine for the full three days of the festival, and added to our fancy dress stash with a new silver wig and spaceman helmet, which I’m certain will prove useful for future comps!
Our Camp Bestival highlights:
- Django Django on the Castle Stage. Camp Bestival is definitely not a festival I attend for the music! Which is why I was so excited when, checking the #CampBestival hashtag on Twitter late Friday night, I spotted that Arrested Development had pulled out of their Saturday evening slot and replaced with Django Django – one of Ry’s favourite bands! Despite playing to a puzzled crowd, they smashed it with a fantastic set which we enjoyed from right at the front.
- The world’s biggest bouncy castle. It’s a very good idea to have a wee before queuing up to pay your £3.50 to bounce on this big bugger for 10 minutes! Adults were rolling off this sweating profusely while kids were screaming they didn’t want to leave…
- DJ BBQ. A barbecue with DJs spinning vinyl, we spent most of Friday night eating burgers and dancing to Michael Jackson, Deee-Lite and other favourite tunes. The dungaree wearing chef was most entertaining!
- Indesit & Arsenal Family Football Experience. We were up early to get Ryland signed up for his free hour-long session at Arsenal Soccer School – all the kids got a Junior Gunners goodie bag, pen and sunglasses. Ry even got his name onto the Skills Leaderboard at one stage! In the Junior Gunners Clubhouse & Indesit Launderette you could get your football kit washed and tumble dried for free… now that’s definitely what you need at a festival!
- Brancott Estate red shed. This was wine tasting with a difference – wearing a virtual reality headset I was transported to the sights, smells and tastes of a New Zealand vineyard! Not what I would expect at a festival…
- Wall of Death. My one and only experience of a wall of death previously had been in Sri Lanka! This one seemed much safer, I must say. It was very exciting for the kids to see the riders zoom right up to the top on their motorbikes and go-karts!
- Skate ramps. Ryland tried his hand at skating too in a free hour long session with Penny Skateboards – afterwards it was fun to watch the pros on their bikes and mountainboards.
Mountain board at #CampBestival
- Albert’s Band. The Royal Albert Hall’s band presented a fabulous ‘Space Symphony’ on the Castle stage at Sunday lunchtime – Superman, Star Wars and lots more space-themed treats.
A great #StarWars moment at #campbestival…
A video posted by superluckydi (@superluckydi) on
- The Blue Coats. A bunch of lunatics in silver leggings encouraging kids and grown ups to take part in ridiculous games like ‘Gurn Baby Gurn’ and ‘Kiss Chase’ (featuring special guest, Herpes). On Sunday afternoon I found myself moonwalking blindfolded over hurdles trying to win a meteorite – I lost!
- Massive spacemen. The two epic giant astronauts were just brilliant. There was also a huge Staypuft Marshmallow man on site!
- First Choice Holiday Island. First Choice dumped a load of sand into the middle of a field to create a beach – and it worked a treat. They offered DJ slots to competition winners (Rob had a go!) and sold cocktails at the bar, while the kids played in the sand. They also had a photo booth to win a holiday – but I’m not entirely sure it worked, as I never received a confirmation email…
- Bollywood. The perfect outdoor dancing venue, Bollywood was cranking up the tunes from 10.30am (when I saw a group of young kids raving to the Chemical Brothers!) every day.
There were so many other things too – arts, crafts, mini planetariums, Lego sessions, woodcraft, yoga, literature, a teenager zone and much, much more. It felt like a smaller, safer Glastonbury – easy to walk around and with so many exciting things to explore. If you fancy going next year be sure to follow Indesit and Junior Gunners on social media, as they do ticket giveaways – and there’s always the annual colouring competition at www.campbestival.net too!
Did you go to Camp Bestival this year? What was your highlight?
We loved Camp Bestival so much this has brought back great memories.
I had my eyes peeled for you guys, I was sure we’d bump into each other!
Our children loved making potions and mud pies in Lizzie’s Way and my eldest met Jess Glynne so that made her weekend, but she also loved all the hula hooping
Hula hooping – how frustrating that I simply can’t master it (my husband however is an expert!)
Wow what a fabulous time you had. LOVE rylands stormtrooper outfit – Miss T would adore that as she is SO into star wars despite being only 4 years old! x
It’s a great outfit, but far too hot for summer! I talked him out of taking it to Florida to wear at Disney, thank goodness!
that is so funny – mine have tiger onesies that they want to wear year round despite the heat! Hope you had an amazing time in Florida x
I couldn’t stop laughing about the catching Herpes with the Blue Coats. The kids had no idea and the adults were falling about! We loved Django Django too.
I’d like to see the Bluecoats tent at EVERY festival if I’m honest!!!