This year Camp Bestival was wet, windy and cold. To go with this I am heavily pregnant and had to sleep on a rapidly deflating air bed while my tent swayed (that’s putting it delicately) all night long under gale force conditions – all our poles snapped and had to be taped up with super strong gaffer in between running around it all night long re-pegging. To say that the experience was less than luxury is somewhat putting it mildly yet somehow we still loved it!

There’s something about Camp Bestival that even I, a fair weather camper at best, couldn’t quite bring myself to pack in and admit defeat – we did leave earlier than planned on the last day and missed the fireworks which was a super shame but we stuck it out through the weather because of quite simply one thing, the magic!

The magic of Camp B is something which can’t even really be described and just has to be felt. It’s family time, friend time, a moment in the year when everyone can go a bit feral. It’s a time for laughing and being together and loving and enjoying and smiling and dancing and face painting and glitter… It’s something really quite different to anything else we do the rest of the year. And we talk about it ALL year. The memories made at Camp Bestival are really quire something!

This year the camping was made a little easier for us because we had, for the first time, Camping Plus tickets. It costs a little bit more but it does mean that you get to park a bit closer to your tent (massive bonus), includes the cost of parking AND means you get a designated spot. Last year Carolynne came a day later than Katy and I and we had the devil’s own job trying to save her a spot with bunting wound around our tents and taken out to chairs and anything else we could tie it to. The camping plus meant we didn’t have the hassle, knew we would be next to each other and generally just took the stress levels down. The whole Camping Plus experience was definitely one to be releated as we also had rather posh showers without much of a queue every morning (even at busy times) and exceptionally posh toilets which were kept clean at all times – it was a wonder that they managed to do this but extremely welcome!

This year our highlights were Madness on the main stage and all the brilliant things for kids – in particular, as per every year, the circus skills and of course the Dingly Dell. Fun and laughter was the order of the festival and we hope next year will be better weather wise but we know even if it’s not, it won’t be dampened in spirit even if it is physically as soggy as muddy bog – if nothing else it gets your welly chic on!

Early Bird tickets are on pre-sale right now here and I’ll leave you with a couple more of my fave pics from this year’s festival for inspiration!