Well. We’ve been. We loved it. We now have holiday blues!

Camp Bestival was one of the best and most fun things we have ever done as a family and I can’t quite believe that as a novice camper I was concerned it might not be enjoyable without a proper bed and luxury toilets! Now that it’s all gone we just wish we could rewind time and do it all over again without having to wait a whole year for the pleasure!

We went feral. We embraced the experience. We can’t stop talking about it!

We left last Thursday lunchtime after packing our new roof top box to the max and FINALLY arrived in Wareham four and a half hours later! Plenty of signs directed us to Lulworth Castle, the home of Camp Bestival and we lugged our stuff (LOADS of it) down the hill to find our pals Katy from Modern Mummy and Alice from An Essex Wife! They had set up camp with their children and saved us a spot.

The men got busy with beer and tent ropes, the women got busy with rum and camp building and the children, well the children just ran up and down and round and round, dressed up in tutus, pulling each other in a wagon and when we were all worn out we sat down to the first Camp Bestival BBQ of the weekend!

From then on in we danced, we laughed, we played in the Dingly Del, we bounced on castles, danced on castles, watched music on the castle stage! Children spent the weekend crafting, painting, laughing, dancing on Daddy shoulders and we spent the weekend reveling in their enjoyment; glass of something in hand, glow sticks waving and feeling young! YOUNG AND CARE FREE!

My favourite pictures from the weekend!

Being at Camp Bestival is like being in an alternate universe where everyone is kind and happy. There was plenty of booze but no argy bargy, plenty of good food and muchos laughter!

My plan was to abandon my usual frog marching of everyone to make the most of EVERYTHING and to just see where the wind took us. We could have done more, much more but we enjoyed in full everything we did do. As a family, always as a family and with friends as well. Camp Bestival was perfect!

Our highlights were:

Cocktails in the Jam Jar Bar

Circus skill learning

De La Soul (Jonny called me Hip Hop Ruth after that)

Camping. Yes really. Even in the rain!

Sinead O’Connor

Potion making in the Dingly Del

The Soul Park

Flying toast which the children all shouted every time we went past the tea and toast stall!

Basement Jax!

Bollywood tent for dancing!

Fireworks

Oh… Everything really!

Rock ‘n’ Roller Baby advice for Camp Bestival:

Take toilet roll and hand sanitiser. The toilets weren’t bad and cleaned daily by friendly men but there was a lack of both!

A wagon is a must. We didn’t have one but wished we had. I rather like the metal ones which you can hire at Camp Bestival as they fold up and have drop down sides. Think I will buy something similar for every camping trip!

The food is expensive but we didn’t spend much despite not scrimping at all. As a family we spent about £150 whilst there including all drinks and food which were a mixture of things we bought in and things we bought there. The Burritos were AMAZING!

Take your own face paints. I did and in our little camp it was a big hit with a line of children every day. They didn’t care that I was no pro, they just wanted painting!

Arrive at the showers early and there’s barely a queue – I had one with the children every day and felt all the better for it!

Tickets are fairly expensive but we had such a good time and the children came away with an enormously brilliant memory of family fun. We spent four days with good friends and all the children were just so happy! I spoke to a 10 year old girl in the Dingly Del who said this was her 6th Camp Bestival, she loved it and said it was what she looked forward to most all year!

Go to camp Bestival, wear flowers in your let down hair and feel like you haven’t done since you were a teen… Oh Camp Bestival, memories are made of this!

See all our Camp Bestival pictures on Pinterest (yes, there really ARE more) but for now let me leave you with the fireworks from the grand finale of our weekend!

Camp Bestival 2014 Fireworks!

Early Bird tickets are on sale now for 2015 by the way. Check them out here!

We received complimentary tickets in return for an honest review.