  
Camp Bestival is a festival that is definitely on top as the most family friendly and decent music weekend in the UK. It is also one that we have thoroughly enjoyed since it began in 2008.
Set in the beautiful surroundings of Lulworth Castle in Dorset, hosting to around 30,000 people, and just like its older sibling Bestival it still manages to keep some of those boutique roots.
Sadly this year’s lineup failed to live up to previous years and there were a lot of people creating rumours that the organisers may have dropped some of Camp Bestivals funding so that they could go all out to celebrate Bestivals 10th anniversary.
It’s difficult for us to give such a negative comment as we are huge fans of everything Bestival, but for a family who have attended since the beginning and seen so many larger and diverse acts at Camp Bestival, it was quite surprising at how little music wise we were interested in.
Of course it wasn’t all bad, there were definitely some amazing gems for the weekend! London Grammar who are moving up very quickly were amazing. The vocals along with the ambient melody make for a great chill out hour with thought provoking chills.
One of our favourites of the weekend had to be Introducing who in the past have recreated DJ Shadows ‘Entroducing’, and Mr. Scruff. Though this year they were recreating Daft Punk live. Absolutely amazing to watch and listen to, and somehow they managed to squeeze in every Daft Punk song you can think in to a 50 minute set.
Other music that was on the lineup this year included Ash, Clean Bandit, Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, Gabrielle Aplin, Labrynth, Mad Professor, The 1975, The Levellers, Fleetwood Bac, and much more.
You can visit the Camp Bestival website for more information www.campbestival.net
The Children’s field maintained its allure. Full of fun things for families to do and it ensured the kids never got bored. To be honest some of it was quite enjoyable for adults too!
The art tent was always over flowing with hyped up children, and was a great way for the kids to get creative and messy.
This year there was a bird sanctuary stall at the edge of the campsite at which you or your child could hold an owl, or other bird of prey for a small donation. Great experience for all, and of course a nice little photo memory.
As usual there was a huge variety of food stalls to fill the hole in your belly over the weekend with all dishes priced at roughly the same. Averaging at around £5-£8 per adult meal.
We always see the paella stall and say it looks tempting but only this year tried it, and must say it is particularly tasty. It’s a great bit of stodge to fill the tummy and settle your hangover.
Our main staple diet, of course, is the tea and toast van. It’s naughtily placed in the campsite, and the constant smell of warm toast and coffee if just too tempting to resist!
The soul park was also busy this year with a large choice of massages and treatments to choose from, as well as yoga. All your stresses and aches can be worked out and leave you feeling rebalanced and ready for a day with the kids or ready to get back on the booze… Or both.
There are also hammocks outside to enable you to lounge around and have a nap before heading off again.
This year we were a little disappointed with the camping situation. We always camp quite close to the festival entrance. Never have we had any issues and have enjoyed the convenience of being able to pop back to the tent or in to the festival.
However this year we had a lot of issues with teenagers who were without parent or guardian, and we were actually surrounded by more teenagers than families.
We had people falling literally on to our tent every night, pegs having to be put back in, and there was lots of shouting, swearing and aggression. Admittedly we had to scarily confront a few on one evening.
Now as regular festivalgoers we expect noise, drunkenness and silly behavior, but for Camp Bestival this seemed quite excessive, we have never experienced that level of rudeness before.
Maybe having stewards within the campsite to address anyone being unruly or who are quite clearly annoying those with small children would be a huge help.
Or be stricter with areas for families and areas for non-families like it is at Bestival.
The programme is always worth purchasing to enable people to mark down all they’d like to see during the weekend, makes planning your stay much easier. It also comes with a couple of goodies such as a Cbeebies magazine for the little ones.
Even though we may have had a few more negative things to say about 2013 at Camp Bestival it is still one of our favourites, and will always be one of the best if you’re a family wanting to get your kids to a music festival.
It does have a great atmosphere, most of the time a great lineup, and there are always things to do for both adults and children. Plenty of workshops, talks, shows and more.
We look forward to what Camp Bestival has in store for us in 2014!
Thanks again to the Besty crew and the Get Involved crew for always making us feel loved.
For all things Bestival go visit
http://www.bestival.net/
http://www.campbestival.net/
Written by Alan Thomas & Samantha Jones. |
