Tent Sniffing for Beginners

I recently filled in a survey for the Wilderness Festival team Always a good idea to get feedback form people that attend your events, especially if you then act on them.   One of the questions made me pause and think, ‘What was your most memorable moment at Wilderness?’   Not ‘what did you like most?’ or ‘what was the worst bit?’ but the most memorable. The thing that sticks in your mind, that festival moment (or moments) that you look back on. And there were a few. Sitting in our camp chairs listening to Sam Smith in the rain was one, it bucketed it down, Sam apologised as though it was his fault, and humbly and sweetly thanked us for staying despite the weather. My chair broke and my ‘waterproof’ blanket leaked so I got a wet bum. But it was lovely anyway. Memorable. One morning we wandered onto the site for breakfast and stumbled into a cinema screen showing of Singing in the Rain, it was a hot sunny day (did I mention the weather was WEIRD!) and we lay in the shade of an oak tree

Yes it was I! Well I didn't plan on the rain. Neither did my brother and his 2 daughters, or my own daughter. We all thought it would be a repeat of last years August trip away (to the same campsite) full of chilled beer, crabbing by the beach and sunny days. Warm evenings round the camp fire making smores and lunchtimes in friendly pubs. Due to the weather it turned into wet days, soggy camp fires and the discovery that the (expensive) Coleman Event Shelter is not strictly waterproof. We were glad to have the event shelter though. I think without it we might have given up and gone home! It really rained. A Lot. Luckily we had planned a day at Splashdown which the girls loved, and we did manage a couple of evenings of dry enough weather to toast a marshmallow or two. One of us got smashed a tad tipsy on cava one evening. I'll leave you to guess who. We took the ferry to the Isle of Wight and had a fun, if damp, day out via bus to the Amazon World which was exc