Wychwood Festival 2015 ::

We had such a good time at Wychwood Festival this weekend, it's so nice to have a festival like this right on our doorstep. The weather was wonderful and much fun was had by all!

Despite it being a local festival we've never attended in the 7 or so years we've lived in Cheltenham until now. I wish we hadn't waited so long! We woke up on Friday morning full of excitement, only to discover heavy dark clouds and torrential rain. Needless to say at this point we were very pleased we had decided not to camp! Our plan had always been to wait until after Effie's morning nap to walk up to the site and fortunately once she had woken up and we had packed up our bags ready to head off, the clouds had lifted and the sunshine was glorious. I was really concerned that the floods of the morning, would have left the festival site a mud bath, but once we arrived I realised this wasn't much of a problem. Most of the site is made up of actual, proper, concrete type foot paths. Much relief to myself and Milo who currently have zero wellies between us.

First stop was lunch, we found a great stone baked pizza place, the price was reasonable, the queue super short and the wait time very quick indeed. The pizza itself was also delicious. We listened to some of the music from the main stage whilst we ate our pizza and talked about what we hoped our day would entail. Tummies filled we headed off for some exploring, well there wasn't much exploring to do, the site is tiny. Compared to any festival I've attended it's at least a quarter of the size if not smaller than any of them. However don't let this put you off, for a family friendly festival this is actually perfect in many ways. You don't have to walk miles up and down hills to get to different tents and I felt that Milo was perfectly safe the entire time.

One thing I would say is that the signage isn't especially good, both inside the festival and on the way in. In fact as we were approaching the racecourse and even upon arrival I was starting to fear I had got the wrong weekend. Eventually we spotted a couple of very small (A4) sized posters with simply 'Wychwood Festival' and an arrow on them. Whilst inside there didn't seem to be much in the way of signage at all. Being as it's so small this obviously isn't a huge deal but it would have been nice to have an idea of where we were going (I didn't buy a programme, so it's possible these had maps within them).

There were loads of fun things to keep both Milo and Effie entertained (not that takes much to entertain Effie). There was a great craft tent, full of tables with various projects to join in with, including screenprinting, knitting, mask making and painting. There was the fabulous, Rig, an array of musical constructions, where the kids can make a lot of noise. A croquet lawn of sorts was laid out for anyone who wanted a game. Milo really enjoyed watching people take part in the slacklining though wasn't brave enough to have a go himself. Waterstones had a tent, one side of which was a little shop, the other held workshops, we dropped in a couple of times to join in with these, but found not much really going on and didn't feel especially welcomed in by the staff, but this may have just been unfortunate timing on our part.

We bumped into one of Milo's school friends and his family on Friday afternoon and together we headed in to watch Graham Jones talk about his book, Time Travelling Toby and The Battle of Trafalgar. This was really enjoyable and educational and Milo really loved it, especially as he got to hold a big sword!

Music-wise, I know better now than to plan to watch too many bands, it just doesn't always fit in with what Milo wants to do and though he does really enjoying watching bands too, I want him to have an nice time, so mostly we just go with the flow. Some of the bands we did catch and really enjoyed included Songhoy Blues (everyone's favourites), Dreadzone and The Edwin Starr Band. However the whole atmosphere was so relaxed and laid back and as the venue was so small, we never felt rushed and that we needed to be somewhere at a certain time. The gorgeous weather certainly helped.

A few other points, the toilets were very good indeed. I know festival toilets are a hot topic! I was really impressed though, rarely any kind of queue to talk of and all very well kept. Food wasn't much to shout about. For a family friendly festival the lack of any kind of fruit stall seemed like a big oversight. I struggled to find much in the way of good food for any of us. Though the pizza was wonderful, no one wants to eat pizza all day everyday (well my other half probably would having said that). The range just seemed a little disappointing to me and more reminiscent of festivals of old rather the kind of food we've come to expect more recently. Although it is possible we were just massively spoilt by Camp Bestival last year, who's variety of food stalls was exceptional. We did eat there and everything we did eat was nice enough, but it could definitely be improved upon. In fact on Saturday night we opted to head home early in order to eat at there instead.

Apart from that though, we had a fabulous time and really enjoyed ourselves. It's definitely a small festival but well worth a visit, especially if you have little ones. I think it would be a great festival for your first with kids to give you a taste of how different festival times with little ones is without the worry of a vast, sprawling, busy location.

I failed miserably at taking photos, but I did take a little bit of video footage ::


wychwood from vicki brown on Vimeo.

We were given our tickets so that we could review the festival but all thoughts are very definitely our own.

Looking Forward to Wychwood::

Wooohoo! Tomorrow we shall be heading down to spend the weekend at Wychwood Festival. We're so excited. I can't believe we've never been before, especially as it's right on our doorstep. We're not going to be camping, much to Milo's huge disappointment. I guess it would have been a good practice run with Effie, but really when we can just saunter back to our nice dry house and comfy beds, it just seemed silly. So instead we shall just take a rucksack full of supplies for the day and head down early and back home late(ish). My pushchair currently has a puncture so I guess we'll be slinging it for the weekend, but I'm sure we'll cope.

To be honest I don't suppose I'll get to see a lot of music, it's something I've come to accept with having Milo along with us. I'm sure we'll pop over to a few stages and take in a few acts here and there, but mostly I think we'll be there for the kids stuff. Which looks amazing, I must say. There is so much going on, a huge variety of workshops and activities to join in with. I can't wait to get in to the festival spirit. Let's just hope the rain holds off!

Camp Bestival :: Camping ::

Yesterday we returned from a fabulous four days at the beautiful Lulworth Castle for Camp Bestival. I plan on doing a couple of other posts about some of our very favourite parts of the festival but for today I'll write a little about our camping experience.

We arrived Thursday afternoon, giving us plenty of time to set up camp and attempt a good nights sleep all ready for the main event starting the next day.
As we're non drivers, it was public transport all the way.  The train journey was fairly easy, two changes from Cheltenham to Wool, but everything ran smoothly and once we arrived in Wool there was none of the chaos of arriving at a train station full of festival traffic we were expecting.  We joined another group of 3 and shared a taxi to the site.  The journey was reasonably quick, the cab driver happily stopped at a shop for us and the fare wasn't too bad once it was split.  As we arrived at the taxi drop off rather than the main car park I expect our experience of arrival was probably quite different to others who did come by car.  It was super quiet and easy to get our wristbands sorted, the stewards were all really helpful and happy to give us directions as to where we needed to go.  I found the whole atmosphere strangely relaxed really, compared to other festivals where arrivals seem so hectic and confusing and queues so long.  Relaxed and easy going is really what you need when you've travelled far with children, luggage and are about to test the limits of your relationship with your other half whilst setting up camp.

The entrance from the taxi drop off to the campsite took you through the main arena, which was lovely as although most of it was cordoned off you could a get a good look of the area and where everything would be, thus creating much excitement in the little one.  It was quite a bit of a walk, but as you came onto the campsite directly from the arena, this was great for me, who was keen to camp as close to the entrance as possible.  Cutting down on the amount of walking a 33 week pregnant lady needs to do is always beneficial.  After much deliberation we found what I think was pretty much a perfect spot for us, about halfway between the arena entrance and the closest toilets. We choose a spot on the main thoroughfare, but as it was quite a short strip it was never too busy or noisy.

As we only had a 2 man tent already in our possession (which did us fine last year, but we're all a little bigger this year) we decided to purchase a brand new four man tent.  The only problem was, as is fairly common place for us, we left this until the very last minute, giving us absolutely no time to have a practice run at tent erection.  It took us a while to set up, I won't lie, but mostly we were nice to each other and didn't have any huge arguments about the problems we experienced with the, seemingly impossible, task of getting the tent poles to fit in the pegs.  I did think we probably looked, rightly so, like fairly incompetent, inexperienced campers, especially considering most of the others camped around us seemed to set up huge palaces out of nowhere in half the time it took us to set up our measly two room tent.

We also purchased a couple of self inflating mattresses, after we borrowed some and found them perfect for transporting and using last time we camped.  I took the smallest pillows I could find in our collection, a fleece blanket and sleeping bags for all of us.  Milo decided he wanted to sleep in a room on his own, so I used the towels we took, along with the blanket under his sleeping bag to create a cosyish spot for him to sleep on As a boy who tends to move from bed to floor to sleep every night at home, he seemed perfectly happy with this arrangement.

Like I already said, we are not super experienced or especially organised campers, so for us preparing food and the like was limited to boiled water.  I took pot noodles, cup-a-soups, coffee, along with apples, raisins, biscuits and cereal bars.  This worked for us and to be honest the range and quality of food available across the festival was spectacular and we ended up bringing home all the pot noodles and the cup-a-soups!

I was surprised and pleased to find so much going on, on the Thursday night as I knew the festival didn't officially begin until the next day.  The Soul Park and the Upper Magic Meadow were open and we were free to roam around quite a lot of the site.  There were lots of places to eat and even some boogieing to be done in the Matua Bar.  Milo absolutely adored DJ Dapper Dan the Rock n Roll Town Crier, as did we.

One thing I wasn't all that impressed by were the toilets on the campsite.  I appreciate that festival toilets don't generally have a great reputation and I've definitely seen worse, but as a festival so heavily aimed at families I do think perhaps a little more could have been done to keep them more pleasant.  I only witnessed the toilets near us being cleaned once, they may have been cleaned more than this, but it was such a noticeable improvement when they were that I think I would have noticed had this been the case.  There was almost never any toilet paper in the toilets both on the campsite and throughout the arena and after the first day the hand sanitiser was all gone and not replenished once.  Fortunately we took plenty of toilet rolls and hand sanitiser with us so were generally OK and Milo isn't too squeamish about yucky toilets, so we survived but it could definitely be improved.  The compost loos around the arena I found to be much better and maybe having these on the campsite would be a nice touch. We also found we very rarely had to queue and when we did there was only ever a couple of people in front of us, so it certainly seemed as though enough toilets were provided.

It took us a couple of days to find the showers, so we only used them once the whole weekend, but when we did I was really impressed.  Provided by these guys, we choose to go up mid afternoon, so we barely had to queue at all and found them clean enough.  They were even stewarded by two guys who squeegeed them out after every use.  I was really impressed, the best festival showers I have yet to use.

I was surprised by how loud and how late the music went on until as it's such a family orientated event. Milo was so tired by the time he made it to bed each night it made no difference to him, but I wish I had remembered to get ear plugs for myself as I found myself waking up a lot through the night.  However once the arena closed up for the night the campsite was surprisingly quiet, I expect this was due to there being so many families and not so many drunken antics! It was even fairly quiet until quite late in the morning, I would say most mornings I barely heard any others until around 8am, which was great.

Overall the camping experience was pretty great, the food stands were all open by the time we got up and there was some good coffee to be found pretty close by.  We were really pleased to be as close to the arena as we were, meaning we could nip back to the tent with ease throughout the day and the general atmosphere was pretty nice and friendly.

Packing up on Monday morning was easy enough, we trekked back through the site to the taxi pick up, watching everything be dismantled as we did.  Again the stewards were helpful and friendly, each one saying good morning as we passed.  We got straight in a taxi, no waiting around at all, had a lovely taxi driver take us back to Wool station, where we serendipitously arrived to a reasonably quiet station 10 minutes before the next train to Southampton.  Again we were so surprised at how easy and relaxed transport to and from the site from the train station was, really really unusual in my experience of public transport and festivals.

I'll cover more of actual festival itself throughout this week and next, but I've written much more than I ever intended on the camping alone so I'll leave it there for now!

If you're interested in attending Camp Bestival next year early bird tickets go on sale Friday.

And we're off :::

Camp Bestival is calling us! We're heading off very shortly. After Tuesdays 7 hour train journey back from Norfolk, today's 4 hour journey seems like nothing. Can't wait to get there and set up all ready for the fun to begin tomorrow.  I've heard rumours of limited internet reception there, so if I go quiet for a few days that'll be why.

Hope you all have glorious weekends whatever you may be doing.

Packing for a Festival ::

So in one week now, we're heading down to Lulworth Castle for Camp Bestival.  We are all so very much looking for this, but since we're mostly away now until it's time to go we have a lot to prepare.
As non drivers, for us packing for any trip away always has to be quite a considered activity, especially now I'm pregnant, with all the back pains I'm having, anything that isn't necessary really needs to stay at home.

We've not been to Camp Bestival before but we did attend Latitude last summer and Milo and I headed down there on our own, so I feel I have a little experience of the light packing required.

Here's my list ::

Camping Equipment ::

• Tent (we had a 2 man last year, which was fine for me and Milo and even OK for the 3 of us when Johnny decided to turn up and surprise us) but this year I think we're borrowing my sisters 4 man, to give us a little more space as Milo and myself are both a little bigger than last year!
• Sleeping Mats.  We borrowed some self inflating ones off a friend last year that were fab, similar to this one, they were comfy easy to carry and set up and something we'll be purchasing for ourselves this year.
• Sleeping Bags. 
• Pillows.  Last year I simply took our slimmest regular pillows and rolled them up.  They weren't too heavy and meant we had a little bit of extra comfort.  I then used my hoodie for a bit of extra support under this, which worked really well.
• Light Weight Fleece Blanket. Light enough and small enough to carry, but provides a little extra comfort.
• Small Camping Stove. We have one like this, which is nice and small but enough for our morning cup of coffee requirements.
• Small Camping Kettle.
• Tin Mugs.
• Spoons/Knives/Forks
• Small Torches.
• Wind Up Lamp.
• Battery Powered Fairy Lights.  These just make the tent that little bit more cosy, totally not necessary but small enough to make it in the bag.

Food and Snacks ::

I was really happy with the food stuffs we took with us last year.  They provided enough to get us through the morning before the arena opened, we took snacks on site with us and were also able to feed ourselves a couple of lunches, meaning we weren't completely reliant on purchasing food there.

• Cup-a-soups.
• Pot Noodles (or similar)
• Bread. Last year I made a small loaf the day before to take along, we also took a small jar of jam. As we didn't break into the bread until the first morning, it stayed reasonably fresh and provided us with breakfast 2 days.
• Apples. The easiest fruit to take in my opinion, easy to store and transport without any worries of squashing or going bad in the heat.
• Coffee/Tea/Sugar.  I don't use milk in my coffee so didn't consider what to do about that last year, as the Mr does have milk in his tea I'm not sure yet how will deal with this.
• Dried Fruit. Raisin boxes and the little bags of yoghurt covered fruits worked great for us last year, so expect we'll do the same this year.
• Biscuits.  Also something you don't need to worry about going bad in the heat.

First Aid Kit ::

• Hayfever Tablets
• Paracetmol
• Plasters
• Savlon

Wash Bag ::

• Toothbrushes
• Toothpaste
• Shampoo/Shower Gel. I decant some into a little travel bottle.
• Suncream
• Moisturiser
• Wipes
• Hairbands/Hairclips
• Hairbrush
• Towels

Others ::

• Camera
• Phone
• Phone Charger (there isn't always a place to use these, but I tend to take to keep a full charge on the train etc. so arrive at maximum charge!)
• Books, the smallest, lightest ones we can find in our collections!
• Notebooks.
• Pencil case with a collection of pencils for the boy to colour.
• A small knitting project for myself.
• Ear Defenders for Milo.
• Ear Plugs.  Didn't have these last time and they were the only thing I really thought we were missing.
• Glow Sticks.

Clothes too of course! We'll also have a fancy dress outfit for Milo for Saturday's Circus theme and I'll be keeping an eye on the weather as it approaches to make sure we have the right equipment for defending the elements.  But that's our big list.  I was so surprised last year at how much I managed to fit into such a small space.  I took just one large camping rucksack and one large shopping bag, giving one had free all the time for Milo when changing trains etc.

I really am getting so excited now! If you have any top tips for festival camping with children I'd love to hear them.

Finding Inspiration :: Dressing Up for the Circus ::

Two weeks today we'll heading down to Lulworth Castle for this years Camp Bestival.  We're so excited.  I cannot wait.  We've never been before, but everything I've read about it so far just makes me more and more eager to go.

The dressing up theme this year is 'Circus'.  After sending Milo off to school this morning dressed as a spider for his 'Ugly Bug Ball', I got to thinking about his costume for Camp Bestival.  We've had a bit of a chat about it and I think at the moment he wants to be a clown, though there was some indecision over whether a lion tamer would be better.

I'll probably make his costume, but I couldn't help taking a peek over on etsy at some of the fabulous circus themed items they had over there.  Here are a few of my favourites.

Click the little pictures at the bottom to see the original source of the images above, or click the big picture to see more of my pins over on pinterest.

Project Wild Thing ::

As Camp Bestival gets closer, we're getting pretty excited by the prospect of attending this year.  As a result we've been keeping a fierce eye on their news page.  On Friday they announced Project Wild Thing would be joining them for the weekend, creating an area for kids to really get back into the wild, activities will include building fires, tree climbing, identifying plants and animals and much more.
Camp Bestival are also running a competition to win festival t-shirts for your entire family.  All you have to do is download the Wild Thing app, get outside, put the app to good use, snap some pictures and email them over to Camp Bestival (details here).

I downloaded the app straight away but unfortunately the dire weather meant it was a few days before we had the chance to use it.  Finally yesterday the rain stopped and the sun even made a brief appearance.  We headed to one of our favourite parks in Cheltenham (Pittville) though we are so lucky here to have many to choose from.  The app is a great resource of outside activity ideas, broken up into sections depending on the amount of time you have available.
We concentrated on the shorter activities, sticking to the 20 minute section, just because I was fearful the weather could change at any moment.
We hunted out 5 different flowers, prowled around stealthily like foxes and turned over rocks to discover 'mini beasts' (as Milo called them).

One we haven't tried yet but I love the sound of is; walking though grass with an old sock over your shoe, once it's really dirty, pop it in a clear plastic bag with a squirt of water and leave in the window to see if anything grows!

This is a great resource and something I can see us referring to loads over the next few months and beyond.  If you fancy getting outside into the wild yourself, you can download the app for iOS here and android here.