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Festival Weather - hoping for the best but planning for the worst

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Anyone that goes to a festival in the UK knows to take wellies. Wellingtons have become a staple item in the wardrobe of the festival fan because whether it rains or not there will be damp bits. Often these damp bits will be near the showers, or the water points, or the toilets...we shall not dwell here. Wellies have come a long way from the days where green was fancy and black was normal. Now there are glitter wellies, fancy patterned wellies, wellies that look like shoes or regular books, wellies that have jewels and probably even bells. But wellies are not the only prep you need for a UK festival. The very first festival I ever attended was Eastern Haze in Suffolk. IT rained. It rained for days. The field become a swamp. The lorries to empty the toilets became stuck in the mud, the toilets over flowed, the car park was a lake. Oh and my tent pole broke. As you can imagine, surviving this was the best fun ever and I was then hooked on festivals for ever! As was my then seven ye

Boomtown Festival 2022

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It's been a long time. Boomtown , my favourite festival, an interactive time of mayhem and unexpected delights interspersed with music and dancing. Unexpected discoveries, weird costumes, lovely people. Drugs, drink, dangerous living and yet filled with joy and love and calm.  For two years no Boomtown. No dancing under the stars, no trying to sleep while a huge festival city breathes around me.  And then, Chaper One, the gathering , and so it begins, again. The festival was smaller this year, it had to be, two years of next to no income and so many unexpected stops and starts. But the city was reimagined, all the districts, usually spread over acres and acres of national park were all together in the main natural bowl, natures amphitheatre.  I chose to upgrade my camping for 2020 and I had rolled the tickets over so I had a glorious bell tent with real beds waiting for me and I'm glad I did! Much like the lucky year I chose to take a camper van to Camp Bestival and then there
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It's been a while

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No blog posts for 2 years.  COVID hit me hard, a lack of festivals which had always been my happy place, my reset button for real life when I needed them the most was really difficult to cope with. I did manage a small bit of camping, but of course I was in the same lethargic funk that the rest of the world was in, caught up in lockdowns that should have made us productive (and given us time to blog!) but in reality just cast us into a no mans land of 'what next' just treading water waiting...  Initially I was hopeful the lockdowns would work in a few weeks, (how naïve!) I even had a mini festival in the back garden, camping out with my daughter, holding our own silent disco and watching movies late on the iPad. We had bunting and cider and music but of course it wasn't the same. The last festival I'd been to was in 2019. The mini garden festival was in April 2020 And there were camping trips I did manage to make! First I managed a trip away in a brief gap between lock
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Night night, sleep tight - Camping sleep mats review

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For a long time I have searched for the perfect comfy night's sleep when camping. As I'm in my 50s the simple thin foam mat favoured by my teen is just not enough for my older bones. So while a yoga mat may do for the young, for the more discerning sleeper something comfier is required. I have tried camp beds like these but found them to actually feel quite hard and uncomfortable. Then I moved on to the old staple, the supermarket inflatable . For years that's what I have used. I soon learned that sharing a double with someone is a nightmare - the heavier person will bounce the lighter around at every movement! So if you use them, use singles. The plus points are that they are deep and comfy. The negatives are that they are bulky, need a pump to inflate, and once you get a slow leak, each night is a slow descent to the ground.    After my trusty inflatable finally gave up, I searched around for other options. Lately at festivals I've been travelling light
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Cornbury Festival 2019 - a review

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Fancy a new festival? Looking for a festival for grown ups that is still child friendly yet not full of teenagers? I think that the Cornbury festival might be just what you need. This year, once again the weather was amazing. Glorious sunshine always helps at a festival. (though mud and rain can make for some fun memories) This year DD and I pitched up in our usual spot on the corner near the comedy tent and the bar, just a 2 minute walk to the breakfast bus, complete with vegan fried breakfast sandwiches and cups of tea. Campsite The general feel of the festival is one of middle class fun. Like a gorgeous English fete with music and a funfair and great food. We listened to the Beach Boys on a sunny afternoon, a wonderful moving set with the Kingdom Choir on the Sunday and Keane and The Specials played too. Much of our day was always spent wandering, cocktail in hand (in a reusable glass), people watching or shopping for jewellery or sequinned fancy costumes. On
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Eco Packing for a festival

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Every blogger that does festivals has blogged about what to take. I've done it myself because it's a thing that newbies, festival virgins, the uninitiated, always ask. But the more I think about the planet, the irony of banning plastic straws but taking wet wipes in your festival kit, the more I thought I needed to 'eco up' my game. Now festival going is never going to be all holy. You'll have to buy stuff, and travel(I'm trying the coach to Boomtown this year!). But here are some ideas to make it a little more environmentally conscious, a little more eco friendly, a tiny bit better for the planet we not only profess to love, but actually live on. You'll need a tent , try not to buy cheap to bin later. It's tempting, you might even kid yourself that 'the homeless' will use it or it will be recycled into clothes . In reality very few tents that are binned are reused, most end up in landfill. If you don't want to buy a tent to reuse year
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