Camp Bestival is the family festival that takes place at Lulworth in Dorset at the end of July. I know so many bloggers who have been and rave about this family spectacular. Last year Erin really enjoyed going to a couple of festivals for the day and asked if we could camp next time.
Therefore when we were invited to be Camp Besitvals Official Bloggers I thought it would be ideal. We decided to invite Erin’s best friend and mum to come with us and together we headed to the venue. The weather had been glorious for a month, the heatwave and our thoughts had been about keeping the girls cool, hydrated and covered up in the blazing sun.
The first thing we realised is when camping there is a lot of stuff to carry into the site! Luckily we followed the lead of others and hired a trolley to pile high with our tent and bits.
Holly and I had done a practise put up of the tent so we knew what we were doing. The Coleman Family Tent Holly Springs 6
What had appealed to me about this tent is that there are two bedrooms at either end. This is ideal when camping with friends as does give you a little more privacy and meant that the girls had some space if they needed some time out from each other. We high fived ourselves after getting the tent up easily and quickly.
Once camp was set up Holly and me rewarded ourselves with a can of cider – another festival must have it seems!
The first night in the tent was fine and we awoke ready for a fun day ahead. We had slept well and were lovely and warm in our sleepings bags The girls dragged us around at a breakneck speed. They wanted to try everything and I was surprised at how much we ended up paying for. The site is really spread out to so do expect to do a lot of walking. It wasn’t as relaxing as I expected at this stage but I was sure that would come as the girls found the slower pace of a festival.
The food offerings were plenty and yummy and I found it difficult to choose and there were so many different street food style things to try. We managed to chill a bit that evening as we sat and listened to music whilst eating waffles. We headed back to the tent tired and looking forward to Saturday and some of the acts we had highlighted that we wanted to see.
However, the wind came in and whipped up a storm. Around us the wind howled and there was not much sleeping happening anywhere. Our tent stood firm, the poles didn’t budge but the inside shook and the girls were not so sure about camping!. They finally fell asleep again as we had all moved into one room to be together.
Saturday we again started the day with hot coffee and our free breakfast which was supplied by Dorset Cereals who really know how to look after campers! We looked at the weather and saw that the wind was going to be awful, it was expected to get worse and sadly we made the decision to take the tent down and enjoy the day at the festival but head off in the evening and return to the safety of bricks and mortar.
We managed to catch up with friends and do the activities that we hadn’t found time for the previous day. The girls made slime and now want to do this at home to! The science shows were great and I am always promoting STEM it was great to see this.
The girls really enjoyed the dancing at the tree which gave us the opportunity to charge up our phones to.
Listening to HRVY was one of Erin’s highlights – not that Holly or I had a clue who he was but our 8 year olds did!!!!
As we waved goodbye to Camp Bestival I wondered if we had made the right decision. We certainly had as the wind rampaged through the festival and nothing could open the Sunday which was a real shame. I know the right decision was made because health and safety had to come first.
It hasn’t put us off camping or Camp Bestival as we hope to go again next year. If you are interested the tickets are on sale now for next year.
We would like to thank Camp Bestival for having us and hope we can come again next year!
