L I F E S T Y L E - C A M P B E S T I V A L 2 0 1 6 !!

Well, The past weekend has been amazing! I was super lucky to have the other half and myself invited to experience Camp Bestival 2016 in Dorset!
Firstly, if you didn't catch my previous post (ALL ABOUT CAMP BESTIVAL)
Then here is a little lowdown for you.

Camp Bestival is a multi-award winning festival that includes everything you would expect from a family festival mashed together with an action packed camping holiday. It's a sister festival to Bestival, being named BEST NEW FESTIVAL back in it's first year (2008) and has since won BEST FAMILY FESTIVAL four years in a row !

It's set in Lulworth Castle grounds in Dorset, and only around a 10-15 minute drive from Dorsets famous Jurassic Coastline (those who know me know I loveeee fossils!) If you're looking for the perfect festival experience for yourself and the kids I'd highly recommend it!
And even if you don't have children, I'd also recommend it!

But I'll get into the nitty gritty details soon enough so you can see it through my eyes and decide for yourself, but I'm sure you'll be getting ready to book 2017's event after reading this post! (We're already on it!!!)

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PHOTO DENSE POST!!

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GETTING TO CAMP BESTIVAL!

So, we had a long way to go to get from our home in Cardiff to Lulworth Castle in Dorset. Getting up at 6am, to get the 6.55am train into Cardiff City Centre before our 7.30am train to Southampton, and then one last train onto Wool! (What a morning!)

We packed everything we needed the night before, and then extras like toothbrushes and make up thrown into our bags when we finished with them in the morning.

 Now poor Michael had to carry the big bag, along with the sleeping bags. The bag only had my clothes, wash stuff and our camp site booze in, but it was the heaviest thing I think I've ever tried to carry! This not including the clothes he made me keep behind... Goodbye pretty dresses and leather skirt!

So I left it to the manly man, while I carried his bag with his clothes in (and my make up/cameras/film/hair products...basically my second bag), a picnic for the journey and also some train booze. Please don't judge us, It was a very early and very long train ride!

(7am selfies are not the best)

(Pokemon Hunting all the way to Southhampton)

There was only so much 'The Guessing Game' and Pokemon Go we could take! 

All the travel was pretty plain sailing, 3 trains all on time with no hic ups, we had seats every time and plenty of room to put our bags, and for £14.75 from Thornhil to Wool each way we can't complain at all! (apart from the fact all the train should have chargers because we need battery for Pokemon)

Once we arrived at Wool Train Station, we managed to grab a taxi to the festival grounds with another young lady working at Camp Bestival, she worked at the Literacy tent! so if you're reading this, or some how magically know who I am on about - I hope she had an awesome time and thanks for saving us £5! :D 

The drive from Wool station to the Lulworth Castle took around 10/15 minutes, it was easy to find and our driver took us straight to White Gate. No hassle to find where we needed to be.

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SETTING UP!

Again, this was pretty plain sailing, we arrived at the box office around midday, handed over our forms for our Press Passes and soon realized we needed to donate in cash, so Mike had to run off and get our donation out of the nearest cash machine.
Luckily, the staff were super nice, I had a chat with the security guard at the entrance while Michael was away, he helped me with my bags and offered me a free cup to put my unfinished Train booze in! (THANKS DAN!)

Once Mike was back with the donation we were given our festival wrist bands, press bands, film pass and sent straight into the castle grounds to hunt for our camp site. The process was so easy, no problems at all, a key factor to having a great event is organisation, and this was the best process I have ever experienced at an event. There were no queues for anything but EVERYTHING was busy!

Even the portaloos, after our long journey we were able to find a toilet no problem!

There were soo many different camping sites, and we didn't have a clue which one we had to use as press, and neither did the staff, but thankfully someone cleared it all up for us and we could use any general camping area. So we walked to the opposite side of the Castle Field and set up camp.

Stupidly on a small hill, which Mike told me not to but yet again I didn't listen, and had two super bad night sleeps! Nothing to do with the people around us, I just wasn't very well and sleeping on a slant hurt my body a bit haha.

Our camp neighbors were surprisingly quiet baring in mind they had probably 7 kids between them. We couldn't complain! They were a funny bunch, especially loved their matching Alien fancy dress!

We used a 3 man tent, with two separate sections, one for sleeping, one for storing our stuff. It was really simple to put up, 3 poles in the front, middle and back, and then just attach to the floor, put in the base layer for sleeping and you're done!

(As you can tell by the smile on my face, I loved my first camping experience)

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FOOD

Food is big on our lists, Mike can eat for the both of us, but I like to give it a my best! I'm a vegetarian and he's an everything eater. I was spoilt for choice, every stand had a vegetarian/vegan/Gluten free option, with a high percentage of the food stands being specifically catering to vegetarians/vegans.

FRIDAY

I didn't feel too well from the moment we got to Camp Bestival (I filled up on too many Cheese and Onion rolls on the way down) so I skipped dinner the first night, naughty I know, But Michael chowed down on a pulled lamb burger from The Food Collective.

With a mixture of it being too nice, and him being so hungry I didn't have a chance to get a decent picture, but believe me... he loved it!

SATURDAY

Still poorly, I didn't want much for breakfast, so headed to a cute little trailer called Balhi, They offered meaty and veggie breakfasts, I chose to go with something I knew I'd like so grabbed a vegetarian sausage sarni, my bread was a little bit too crispy for my liking (I'm not fussy I swear!) But the ladies and gents were happy enough to change mine for something a little softer!

Wasn't the nicest thing I've ever eaten, but still pretty damn good for morning grub! A little bit of butter on the buns would of went a long way, but again, this might of been because I wasn't feeling too good. I ate around half of the bun and two sausages, Michael happily helped himself to the rest and said the bread was right up his street!

Michael had a full breakfast burger from Kenniford Farm Hog Roast! 

They were amazing, they farmed their own pigs and used them within their products, and also used free range eggs . The stand right next to I <3 Sausage.

 This being a huge sausage, bacon, fried egg and mushrooms inside a large soft white bap. for £6.50 you could get a full breakfast and a cup of tea. Again, couldnt get a picture of his food because he ate it soo fast! I think this would be his favourite store, we went back there around 4 times!

Dinner on Saturday was probably my favourite meal of the whole event. I lost my burrito virginity to The Flaming Cactus. My best friend Will bought a chicken burrito from these guys at Common People in Southampton and swore blind it was the best burrito he ever had.

When Mike went to Bestival last year he said it was the popular place, so popular him and the lads would use it as a meeting point a few times a day to round every one up.

So I thought why not! I had the vegetarian version again, which was mushrooms, shredded onions, pepper and probably a few other things I couldn't figure out covered in a blackbean sauce. Kind of like a fajeta, placed on top of rice with guacamole, salsa, sour cream and a little bit of chilli sauce. We opted for the LARGE buritto to keep us going for the rest of the day so we wouldn't have to go back again while the music was on if we got hungry.  Believe me, we didn't, I forced myself to eat 90% of it, and again Mike had the rest, along with his chicken burito!  at  £8.00 It was a bargain!
Coming from Cardiff, where Buritto's are around £4.50, to a festival where they are £8.00 might seem a bit steep, but that's what we expect of festival prices I guess. But then again, think of someone coming from London, or just a higher priced area, these are normal prices, if not pretty cheap for them when they're used to higher prices at home. I'm impressed, we spent hardly anything the whole trip!

(Chicken Burrito Image from THE PURPLE PUMPKIN BLOG)

I'd highly recommend The Flaming Cactus, they're at every festival, and don't have much of a social media following, so check them out on Instagram because they're lonely and 100% deserve some loving! They're amazing!

While I went for a loo break, Michael sneaked off to Kenniford Farm again for a Lamb Burger, half demolished by the time I got out, How this man isn't the size of a house I'll never know!

SUNDAY 

Again, I still wasn't feeling to well, so skipped the most important meal of the day, Aching all over as per so didn't feel up for food.

So Mike ate for the both of us again and ordered a Lamb Burger from Kenniford farm

again (see a theme here guys?)

I felt I needed something a little bit healthier for dinner to help me feel a little bit better, so headed to the healthy eating section in slow motion, where I happily stumbled upon Milgi! Milgi are an amazing restaurant from City Road in Cardiff, I've been a few times to enjoy their live music and cocktail nights, as well as their amazing Nachos inside! I loved their actual restaurant in Cardiff, I would order my food, and I could see them pick up the fresh/locally sourced ingredients right in front.

Anyhoo, I ordered the Wholefood bowl. Now this was like witch craft! How can fresh food, straight from the ground taste so so so amazing!? Seriously? 

It had Coconut rice, chick peas, red cabbage, lettuce, shredded carrot, some patti thing that we talked about all night trying to figure out what it was with some magical yellow sauce over the top.

It looked amazing, looked good for me and oh was it! 

Made me feel Tip top for a few hours after eating it, Mike loved it soo much he wanted to go back and grab another, and as you can tell by his previous list he's a big meat eater so it must be good!

We were heart broken after the live music when we headed back to find out it was closed :(

Due to Milgi being closed *shakes fists*

We headed over to DeadGood Burrito, We shared a Black Bean Burrito, with everything apart from the jalapeno peppers. Went down a treat in our little wait for Tears for Fears to headline! Another good burrito down me! I'm a changed woman! Going from Zero to two in two days!

We loved the burritos soo much from DeadGood Burrito, we went back to get our dose of Nachos because we had a little bit of withdrawal symptoms! They were the perfect end to our perfect last night at Camp Bestival!!

MONDAY

Monday morning, we packed up early and decided to fill our boots ready for our longggggg journey home (I wanted to stay so badly).

Again, I don't even need to tell you this, Michael had a change of heart after pretty much ONLY eating at Kenniford Farm, and decided to have a Nutella crepe from Happy Crepes, while I went all out at Tea & Toast and had avacado, haloumi and veggie chorizo on toast! Most I had eaten the whole weekend, but it was so good I finished it all and wouldn't even share it with Michael.This time it was too good for me to get a photo of it before I started, and I sat down right in everyones way to eat it as well! SORRY GUYS!

You can see why they were the peoples choice at Glastonbury! Lovely girls, and they'd pretty much ran out of everything by Monday morning!

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CASTLE STAGE

FRIDAY 

The Castle Stage was pretty much the main event for us at Camp Bestival, with big names we've seen before and ALOT we haven't. We were overly excited to see everyone! We wish we could of spent our whole weekend sat on the field with our picnic blanket listening to the most amazing acts but there was soo much else to do and see we missed a lot! but we did get to see some absolute bangers!

(Michael looking super pleased with me snapping a shot of him checking out the set list times)

So Friday, we got to Camp Bestival around midday, set up camp and went and explored/got food, so we missed most of the acts (I AM HEART BROKEN WE MISSED MR MOTIVATOR!)

 But, we did manage to see Reggie N Bollie. Michael didn't really get it, because he doesn't watch TV talent shows, but I love Reggie n Bollie, me and tribe used to watch X Factor religiously just to see them every week! They just have soo much energy, they interacted with the crowd and got everyone to join in, even teaching us some new dance moves! 

(watch me whip, watch me nae nae)

(as you can tell by my goofball face, I am super happy to be here!)

After Reggie N Bollie we headed off to explore a few more little treats Camp Bestival had to offer, so missed a few more acts on the Castle Stage.

We headed to Bollywood to check out a DJ called Shadow Child because Michael said he was really good, and I couldn't agree more! Was probably one of my favourite DJ sets I've ever experienced.

(Michael loved Shadow Childs Set. Funniest images from the weekend)

Although we missed most of the main stage while exploring the festival, We could still hear Jamie Lawson through the forest while we heading to the petting zone!

We did however, head back in the evening ready for Jess Glynn.

We had an amazing view, near the front, ever so slightly to the left of the stage. It was amazing!

Everyone in the crowd knew every word to her songs, all ages singing together it was really something else!

I had a little moment after reading some more bad news about another lad from my area, but the stars were all shining so brightly as Jess sang Hold my hand, it looked beautiful, with the way the stage was lit up, the bright stars shining down on us, everyones happy faces and the bubbles glistening all around.

The boys were looking down on us!

I took photos on my film camera of Jess's set, so now I have the long, hard week wait for them to be developed!

(Photo from Wire Image)

We wanted Jess's set to last forever, but sadly, she headed off just after 11.15pm, so we thought we'd go for a walk back to the tent, but got distracted by Trevor Nelson over at the Bollywood stage.

Now this was the perfect place to end our night!

At this time, we were a little bit boozy, and happy to stay out and go wild on our first night at Camp Bestival.

Trevor Nelson is mostly known for his Soul and RnB sets over the airways, but as he was part of the RAM JAM this year his playlists mainly sort after Reggae and Dancehall artists. Which, as much as I like RnB, I also enjoy Dancehall! Spoilt for choice!

After Trevor Nelson came the big man himself, David Rodigan! Rodigan is one of the biggest Reggae and Roots DJs every produced in Britain! 

and we can see why, his set list was amazing, songs that everybody knew, from Beanie Man up to the legend Bob Marley himself. Rodigan chatted to the crowd and made the atmosphere amazing, I felt like we were in his own back garden. Everyone was happy as larry, chatting to each other. There wasn't any silly arguments or pushing and shuving. It was just a friendly vibe. 

I'll definitely be checking out David Rodigan again soon.

SATURDAY

Saturday was our busiest day, we had settled into camp fine, and wanted to see what was around for us to do and see. Again, we missed a lot of the Castle Stage, due to charging phones/watching silly science/checking out the skateboarding.

But we did catch bits and bobs of Dick and Dom hosting the stage, we loved Dick n Dom in da bungalow when we were younger! so it brought back some great memories!

I thought they were hilarious, sarky banter, my favourite kind of humor. Especially loved how they sectioned the audience into Dicks and Doms. Because, you're a dick, and you're a dick, and you're also a dick too! They had me in stitches!

They had a good old game of boogies, constantly throughout the set, and also encouraged some of the children to get on stage with them to take part in other games. This one was good, they asked to kids to come play the repetition game. Which is just where they say a number of words and you have to memorise them and repeat. Pretty straight forward, but a little nerve racking for the youngsters on the stage. The game was never ending because the crowd were getting involved and shouting the words out for them.

The kids were really sweet and didn't have a clue who Dick and Dom even were, they were just happy to be there!

We caught Dawn Penn at 17.45 after our little nap to recover from all our walking, She was fantastic. In the least patronising way possible, for her age, Dawn Penn is something else! She sounded amazing, really humble, was cracking jokes and swaying along with the rest of us.

Surprisingly, we knew a lot of her songs, even though we're a little young and most of her songs are before our time.

The crowd were super disappointed when she left the stage, she left the stage like all greats do, and we expected her to come back on to play us one more song at the end! but they went over their set time and couldn't play the one song we were all waiting for... you know what it is.
NO NO NOOOOOO, YOU DON'T LOVE ME AND I KNOW NOW!

Don't worry Dawn, We still love you! <3

After watching Dawn we were a little excited to come back and watch a few more artists on what was probably our most excitable night here at Camp Bestival - So we headed to our tent to sort out make up out for the evening!

What do you think?
Mike drew some beautiful Stars and a moon above my eyebrow. and we made him look like a Golden Bowie. For some reason, the man doesn't like having make up on his face.. but soon came around to the idea!

Make up done, food in our bellies and a bit more drunk down us we were ready to head back to watch Katy B and Fatboy Slim! 

Now I was lucky enough to see Katy B at Common People back at the end of May, and Michael saw her at his University Ball back in June. so we knew what to expect, and yet again, she didn't disappoint! 

[Photo from the Express Online]

She had on her sparkly spacey top to fit this years Space theme, along with a mermaidy/spacey crown, Space mermaid I guess?

 She set the stage on fire, with the help of her beautiful DJ (Mega girl crush) and her lovely 4 back up dancers.

Katy sang, danced and chatted to the crowd beautifully. I used to study performing arts, it's bloody hard to sing and dance at the same time but she made it look effortless. She let the crowd join in with her singing in all the right places and gave us a show to remember!

I think I'm going to have to book to see her a third time just to get that fun Saturday night feeling back!

Now the big man.. the guy we've all been waiting for!

FAT BOY SLIM!

I hadn't knowingly listen to Fatboy Slim for a long time, it might of came on in a club but hadn't put on You've come a long way baby since I was around 10 maybe?

The crowd was HUGE! We were ram packed going all the way back to the castle. A little annoyed at the amount of babies in trolleys and asleep on the floor in the pitch black! Especially seeing the website made rules about trolleys at the back after 6pm. That needed to be secured a little bit better... Not being greedy and moaning about not being close enough, but I was so paranoid about dancing just in case a child was asleep on the floor next to me. 

Due to needing a loo break, we did have to make our way through the crowd, which surprisingly wasn't as hard as we'd thought. Mike was pretty much the tallest person at the whole festival, so could see from anywhere. I'd just stand in between too people to get a looksee at the stage and stand on my tip toes every now and a again. 

We managed to stand to the right of the sound booth in the middle of the Castle Field. We had a fantastic view! We could see Fatboy Slim plain as day, and also see the LED screen to the right of the stage for the close ups and crowd shots. Everyone loved the set, especially the little girl on her dads shoulders next to us, she must have been around 6/7 and was going wild! I loved how the music catered for all ages! 

[WENN.com]

SUNDAY

Now Sunday was our chill out day, we woke up a little bit later, tried some new places, sorted our gear out in the press tent and packed our stuff away.

We headed to the Castle Stage around 15.30 to find a good spot to seat up our picnic blanket and chow down while we waited to see The Brand New Heavies.
Now, I knew TBNH via my mothers music as I was growing up, but Mike hadn't heard of them before, I tried YouTubing a few to try and re-jog his memory but he had no idea.

They're known as an Acid Jazz and Funk Band. No idea what the acid stands for, but Jazz is one of Mikes favourite genres, and I like a lot of Funk so it was a perfect mash.

N'Dea's voice is amazing! She could really belt it out and hit all the right notes perfectly, I loved her massive trebles. I also loved her Jumpsuit.. I don't know if it was mean't too, but it reminded me a little of R2D2?

They're songs were super catchy, and got everyone in the mood for some much deserved dancing.

A nice finishing touch from TBNH was the fact they brought their children out onto the stage for their song 'You are the universe'.
The kids were super cute and boogied down! All apart from the bassist's son who just wanted to be near his daddy, *cuteness overload*. Their set over ran a bit, but thankfully the crew let them play one more song, and it was totally worth it!

Next up we had KT Tunstall! We couldn't remember quite who she was, we knew the 'suddenly I see song' but had a long discussion about her possibly being the lady who sang 'Foundations' Mike swore blind it was KT, and I swore blind it was Lily Allen.. turns out we were both wrong and it was Kate Nash haha. 

Anyhoo... KT put on a real show! I loved all of her different guitars (woman of many) and she put so much energy into her performance she broke her radio set and had to get a new one, total rock and roll star. 

She played a variety of songs, most of which we knew! Which meant we could sing and bop along, she even played a new song and got the audience involved, she taught us the lyrics.

(no spoilers here sorry ladies and gents!)

A quick rush to the press tent to charge my phone for half hour, and another quick run back to the stage to watch a cheesey favourite of mine, BANANARAMA!

These ladies were hilarious, joking about how cheesey they are/were, pulling out all the old dance routines and just giving off a positive vibe. The crowd were dancing along to the routines, I've got two left feet and hands so I was rubbish, but the group of men in front of us were spot on!

They sang their own songs, The Supremes and also the Bee Gee's. 

Of course they left their biggest hit, Venus, to the very end!

Making it extra special by inviting half the crowd to invade the stage (so happy the guys in front got to go up).

We sadly had to miss Anne-Marie as we had to go pack our belongings quickly just incase we had took too long in the morning before our taxi was booked. We managed to grab some food, sort out faces out and head back down with minutes to spare before the big boys come on.

By big boys, we of course mean TEARS FOR FEARS!

They were unbelievable! Their open intro was Everybody wants to rule the world, Lorde version, before hitting the stage like the true legends they are! We couldn't believe that Camp Bestival was their first ever festival, they've been going since before we were born, what is this?

But Camp Bestival is the perfect festival for them to lose their fesitval virginity too!

We didn't realise how many TFF songs we actually knew, all we could think of in our heads was 'Everybody wants to rule the world' so when 'Shout' and 'Madworld' came on we were ecstatic.

We met a nice young lad at the front of the stage who wanted to see the bands really badly, but was on his own because his brother/family didn't share the same interest in rock music, so he joined us for half of the set before heading off to find his parents.

It was lovely to see everyone enjoying the show, especially the two ladies in front of us who kept pushing and pushing to get closer and closer to the best spots on the field. They were manic! 

My favourite part of the whole set had to be when they played their own version of Michael Jackson - Billie Jean. I'm a massive MJ fan and all I did was scream throughout the whole song; Mike must have been so embarrassed of me.

Their spot lasted just over an hour and a half, and was the perfect fairy on the top of the tree to our fantastic weekend of performances. They led us right up until the Fireworks Finale. Which surprisingly to me isn't another band.. but it's now a future band name, it fits right in! haha.

[Image from Instagram : +Camp Bestival - Side note by me :3]

[Cheeky Polaroids of TFF and Katy B]

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WHATS ABOUT?

There was soo much to do at Camp Bestival, we really did try our best but couldn't fit everything in, so I'll talk about a few of our favourite features, because this blog post is already long enough and I'll just upset people who didn't manage to get all the way around!

First up, The Dingle Dell.

We headed to The Dingle Dell on Friday in between the Bollywood and the Castle Stage. The area was packed with loads of different activities for everyone of all ages, we caught a few different events in one trip. First thing we saw was a small science show. Which taught kids how air pressure worked inside a large bottle and how by pumping air into it really fast the 'rocket' would soar high into the sky. The kids were amazed! and so was I by how high they managed to get it to fly!

Further down the path, just before the 50 things to do before you are 11 3/4 section was a small animal area, full of little cute fluffy chicks! Michael fit right in due to being known as Ducky by his mates, so of course we grab a photo of him with his bestest pals! 

Just past this little petting area was a giant wooden frame, that children were climbing and adding pieces of wood onto using hammers and nails, I'm going to guess they'd started it first thing in the morning and it kept getting bigger and bigger?

It looked fantastic, taught kids new skins and made DIY fun!

Behind us was also a tree climbing exercise held by The National Trust, 6 HUGE trues with ropes and harnesses to encourage the kids to climb safety. My nephew Shaquille would have loved this bit, but I don't know how long he would of lasted in the harness. 

 THE CHAPEL

[Mike looks freakishly tall her, he's tall, but not that tall haha]

We headed to The Chapel, purely because the DJ was part of Buffalo Bar in Cardiff. We love a good BnG Night out in Buffalo on a Monday! If we haven't got work on Tuesday.. or if I feel like I can deal with 4 and a half hours sleep before a 8.5 hour shift. *I'm feeling lucky!*

The giant inflatable chaple had a full stain glas window feature at the back, and just infront of it a DJ on the decks, along with an MC performing the wedding for the happy couple taking part as all their friends/family/a bunch of random people who didn't have a clue what was going on in this urban chapel!

It was a good laugh, and everyone taking part was loving it!

SILLY SCIENCE

Saturday lunch time we settled down outside the Science tent to watch todays installment of Silly Science. Silly science was hosted by two scientists, and sometimes interrupted by two very mean safety inspectors! 

Silly Science taught kids interesting science projects that could easily be done at home (with adult supervision of course) in an easy language for them to understand. Michaels a Master of Physics. So funnily enough he know how air pressure would keep a lid on a beaker of water and not let it fall out, or now hot air would make an egg fall into a Erlenmeyer Flask (Oh but he didn't know what that was called!...)

The presenters were really good, they communicated well with children and parents, they got the kids involved by asking them questions and helping explain key features to the projects. They even covered them in water from a few holes in a cola bottle after changing the pressure inside. The kids went crazy! 

FOSSILS

Seeing as the festival was held around 10 minutes away from Dorsets jurassic close, it'd be silly not to have some sort of fossil feature at the event right?

So of course they did, They had a number of different fossils from shells to actual dinosaurs inside the tent, and a nice stand outside where they could tell you about the each fossil, where it came from, what it was and even how old it was.
They even let me paint my own ammonite fossil for a donation, I painted it bright yellow, left it there to dry and then forgot to go back for it :(

PENNY SKATEBOARDING SCHOOL

Michael and myself are both skateboard, so the Penny Skateboarding School seemed like a good idea to us. Ideally, we use regular skateboards, wide, grip tape, you know the ones.

But getting kids into the extreme sports market is always a positive from us!

I loved that kids of all ages were getting involved. It basically let kids have a go on the Penny Board and taught them the basics, how to go, how to stop and how to turn.

Everyone looked super cute in their protective gear !

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OVER ALL

Overall, we thought Camp Bestival was amazing! The most friendly festival you could imagine. There was something for everyone, of all ages, and all abilities. 

The location was absolutely stunning, Lulworth Castle was beautiful and the grounds were breathe taking, how lucky are we to have something to stunning here in the British country side?

The site was laid out in a very strategic way, each field had it's own special touches, but catered for everyone, while being a little bit more specific. Coming down from our campsite, we had giant blow up football courts for children to play with help from Arsenal staff, but directly across from that was a launderette. Kids get dirty playing football, wash their kit over the road.

Slightly up from the football grounds was a specific section called Slow Motion. Now everyone could get involved here, but I feel it was more aimed at the adults, offering Yoga, Healthy food and drinks, pamper sessions and much more. This area was very appealing to the female adult, not in a sexist way at all! but the two times we went inside to get a Milgi meal it was 95% female dominated.

[Image from Instagram : +Camp Bestival]

Then, when you entered into the actual site, you were greeted by The Big Top. It's a giant circus tent! It looks amazing and had sooo much potential! 

Throughout the days it was used as a place to entertain mainly children, which is amazing of course! The kids had talent shows, they brought in acts from around the country to show off their talents and had a massive Disney sing along that we could hear from the other side of the castle. I got my frozen on don't you worry.

In the nights, they offered a variety of different acts, from folk singers to comedian Jasper Carrot. and also a silent disco until the early hours for two nights, but I can't help but feel this tent should of been where Bollywood was held? 

With a massive laser show, this could of easily become an intense rave tent? I wouldn't like it to become a typical rave tent with misbehaving inside, but just a thought I guess.

[Image from Instagram : +Camp Bestival]

Camp Bestival was a lot of fun. I'd recommend it to anyone with a family, any age is fine, from a few months to 16 years would all happily find something for everyone here!

I'd also recommend it to those without children, we went without kids, due to my niece being grounded and had the most amazing time!

The atmosphere was something else, I didn't feel sorry about stumbling into a drunk, and didn't see any drugs the whole time I was there. Which I feel is a very important point to make because children are impressionable! There were no fights, I didn't see anyone being sick or aggressive.

It was the most peaceful weekend away I have ever had. Easy to get to, easy to get around and easy to please everyone and anyone!

We were so lucky with the weather too! I feel there should of been a little bit more coverage in some areas just in case, but I guess everyones positive vibes towards the weather paid off. We were super impressed! It started raining as we were packing our night clothes away, and the moment we opened the tent to start parking that away it stopped raining. Someone was looking down on us all!

The food was great, so much choice for everyone. Again, there was something that everyone could enjoy. Even the fussy eaters could enjoy milk and butter on toast! 

I loved being able to sit down, enjoy the sun and experience some amazing music with ease. We were made to feel so comfortable before the event by the staff once again, Thanks Molly! The security guards on site were really helpful when we couldn't find out way around, and one of the men working by the press tent every day made me laugh every time I walked passed. Sorry I didn't catch your name, but you made me smile every morning!

The fireworks finale were something out of this world. We picked a lush spot just to the side of the giant astronauts, we had a view of the castle and it was spectacular. It was a perfect way to end the event on a high note and it couldn't of gotten any better!

MICHAEL'S PERSPECTIVE

Seeing as I got a free ticket to Camp Bestival I feel as I should add a few words on the experience. Camp Bestival is largely different to any other festival I've been too whilst maintaining some obvious similarities. For example you won't find anybody lying in a puddle of their own vomit at 11am, but the you will find groups of adults sharing drinks in the day. You won't have 5 cheap tents piled into a 5 metre area, instead you have large luxurious tents pitched with plenty of space equipped with entire kitchens! 

In the day the festival is populated by families with children as young as young as a few months and there is a friendly atmosphere around. Then when the main stage closes at 11pm the family crowds are replaced by young adults who rave until the early hours. 

Camp Bestival is refreshing in that it defines new standards of what a festival can be. We can still enjoy ourselves with in a family environment. Ex-ravers come for nostalgic party vibes whilst safe in the knowledge that their children are having fun. I would definitely recommend Camp Bestival to people of any age, which a rare characteristic of a modern festival.

THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHECK OUT CAMP BESTIVAL!

We were literally over the moon about being able to come work for the weekend, and we look forward to seeing you again next year!

We loved Camp Bestival! 

* Prepare for Photo Spam*