We are on day three home from our second festival experience and I think I’ve almost caught up on the washing and organising so I’m sitting down for a bit to write up this post whilst the festival buzz is still high in the house. As I say we are fresh back from Camp Bestival in Dorset, with glitter still coming out of every shower, tents still not back fully in the cupboard and several jumpers still hanging up drying. It was our second time going to this festival and honestly I couldn’t recommend it enough. We went two years ago when the kids were aged 5,3,1 and this time they were 7,5,3 and this time I thought I’d write a bit of a survival guide for anyone looking for a bit of guidance or even a bit of persuasion to give it a go- I’m by no means a festival or even a camping expert but I figured even a couple of tips might be worth sharing. So here it is in no particular order…

Picking which one to go to. This one was recommended to us by a fellow Mum and the great thing is it’s local to us and also aimed specifically at families- Mr Tumble is a headline act! There are a range of activities for all different ages though which makes it feel very inclusive.

Acts and Activities. We booked early when it was cheaper and it also meant we could spread the cost with a payment plan. This does however mean that the main act list hadn’t been announced so it’s always a gamble on when to book, but there are so many things to do at this festival though that even if there had been a poor line up there would still be plenty to do. Once the list was up though I sat with the kids and went through asking them which ones they would like to see so nobody missed out. However, things don’t always go to plan (see my next point!) and although I made a list of 35 things we actually only ticked off 13 of those.

Lower your expectations. If you read the point above and thought we would be disappointed with only seeing 13 of our great huge list of 35 you’d be massively mistaken. That still means we had 13 amazing experiences that we planned for and it meant we had loads more experiences that we weren’t planning on having when we stumbled across activities or acts that weren’t on our list and sometimes these impromptu ones turned out to be the best. Like the theatre show we walked into on Saturday night and loved so much we went back for their Sunday performance too (they performed a show each night where the kids joined in the acting but also the kids made the story up as the show went on and nothing was off limits whether it be a supervillain with a ‘death touch’ who moved from place to place with the power of his farts, to a group of 20 kids on stage all playing trees so that no one was left out). Then there was us taking a chance on the ‘surprise guest’ telling a bedtime story in the CBeebies tent instead of seeing one of our original list and landing an amazing experience of Justin Fletcher (aka the main man Mr Tumble himself) reading a story. But basically don’t put too much pressure on yourself or on the kids- it’s a lot to take in for everyone and can be really overstimulating at times, in fact it’s a rare moment when everyone in the group on fully on board at the same time with whatever was going on so just roll with it and don’t force it (for example a music act might be 45 minutes long and they might get up for a couple of songs then sit down for the next half hour before getting up for the last bit- the point is let them do their thing and if it’s just you up and dancing for 20 minutes then so be it, you’ve come to a festival to have fun yourself too!).

Throw that routine out the window. There is absolutely no point and no chance of sticking to a routine at a festival so don’t even try.

Prepare for all weather. We were lucky the first time we went and only saw one small rain shower. This time we were not so lucky. It rained- a lot. Sunday morning and night were an absolute wash out and we got soaked and filthy. Luckily I’d packed all the waterproofs and even the woolly hats just in case and boy did they get some use- I think it’s the first time I’ve worn a woolly hat on my birthday ever! But the best advice if the forecast is looking iffy would be just accept that you will get filthy and the sooner you accept it the sooner you’ll enjoy it (plus we all have washing machines at home to deal with that later so embrace the mud!), just make sure wellies are top of the pack list!

Packing. I love making a list anyway so for this sort of thing I’m in my element. Make that pack list as soon as possible so you know what extra things you need to buy and can stagger to cost plus you won’t end up panic buying on the way there or even whilst you’re there. Some essentials for the list include- wellies, ear defenders for the kids, toilet roll paper, anti bac gel, potty (even if just for night-time with the older kids), first aid kit and snacks, snacks and more snacks- pack all the snacks! And don’t forget the wellies. I also packed up a ‘stuck in the tent’/distraction bag for the kids, this included some small toys, sticker books and a couple of books. This bag saved my sanity whilst I was setting up and taking down the tents.

Tents. Yes we did take two tents. We have a 4 man tent and now also have a larger 6 man tent and this time we took both. This was a game changer. It meant we had more space in the larger sleeping tent and we used the smaller tent to store everything. Although the distraction bag kept them occupied for a while I did also rope them in to packing away this time- mainly as I was taking the tents down in the rain and wind and they would have blown away if not for some extra hands. So both times we made the choice to leave late on the last day instead of staying that extra night and leaving the Monday morning. The journey home wasn’t very long so we preferred to head home late and get into our own beds instead of hanging around. This meant packing away the tent on the Sunday morning each time which was tricky in this years weather but the Monday morning wasn’t much better so there was no avoiding the rain anyway.

Quiet time. As I’ve said a festival can be quite overwhelming for the little people so it definitely pays to have some quiet times every now and then so they can have some down time and everyone can recharge. There were a couple of areas suited to this, but then sometimes all you need is half an hour on the edge of the field with a cup of tea and the sticker books- we did this on Saturday afternoon whilst Clara had a nap in the wagon during Gok Wan’s DJ set (bit of a surreal experience on it’s own).

Keeping costs down. The first time we went we made the mistake of queuing for over an hour and paying a small fortune for the face paint tent, this time we took stick on tattoo’s and glitter and avoided that. We also made sure to take flower headbands, fairy wings etc so you don’t get the kids pestering for everything they walk past. We avoided the fairground rides this time as they are so crazy expensive- last time we limited it to one ride a day- but this time it would have worked out around £18 for us all to have a ride so we just made excuses each time and distracted them with other things.

Phone charging. We pre paid for a phone charging locker each time and we absolutely made use of it. Other ideas include getting a solar powered charger which might be something we invest in for the future.

Kids hair. Polly is still rocking her Rapunzel hair which could be a nightmare in a muddy wet environment so I kept her hair plaited up all weekend and just added glitter here and there- much easier than trying to tame it every hour when it’s down.

The wagon. So the first time we went Clara was only just one so we just took the trusty pushchair and winged it. This did work ok but this time we invested in the wagon. It was a game changer. I did quite a bit of research before buying as the last thing you want is to spend over £100 on something that breaks on it’s first use. Boy did we put this thing through it’s paces and (touch wood) it’s come out the other side. It was perfect for taking all the equipment to and from the car. It was great when Clara needed a nap on the go with the bags in there. And it was a lifesaver at almost 11PM on the final wet walk back up the muddy hill to the car to go home when we threw all three kids in. For anyone who’s interested we went for the Aunotism collapsible Garden wagon with a 100KG capacity and we got it off Amazon for £90. It didn’t come with a rain cover but we just chucked a couple of pushchair rain covers over it (sometimes my hoarding pays off and we actually have three of these even though we only have one pushchair left!). The wheels were fairly muddy by that last run though but I had a few spare nappy bags which were easy to slip onto each wheel for that journey home.

So, would I recommend a festival for a young family- absolutely! Plus if anyone has any other festivals they’d recommend then any suggestions are welcome. Just always remember- don’t forget to pack the wellies!