Tent Sniffing for Beginners

Hi all, I expect you are wondering what a tent has to blog about. Well I have some exciting times you know - I travel to all sorts of exotic places (ok ok the Isle of Wight is the only time I have travelled 'overseas'  but still...) and I attend lots of festivals each year, I don't get a wristband but that's OK as I don't have any wrists. To introduce myself, I am Wilfred. I am a canvas Cabanon tent, a Dutch pyramid style, slightly retro and very storm resistant. In 2015 I had the equivalent of a tent tattoo , and was painted with a fun Japanese design. I'm well used, well loved and unique. This year I went to The Byline Festival and had a lovely time in a nice grassy field with well spaced tents. There were lots of new tents there who told me that their owners had never even taken them out of the bag before! I felt a true 'old hand' with my merry bunting and flags, my extra tarpaulin and my solar lights. The festival itself seemed very genteel....

Today on the blog, a beauty blogger gets down and dirty at Download festival and gives us the benefit of her experience. Much of her advice applies to all festivals, not just Download Camping isn’t my usual topic when it comes to writing blog features, instead opting for beauty, lifestyle and parenting features over on my blog, Tattooed Tealady , but today I’m quite looking forward to being able to share something different, and what better place than here! Today I’m going to run you through my Top 5 Tips for Camping at Download Festival , a metal festival held in the East Midlands at Donnington Park and the festival I have frequented the most over the past 8 years. First things first, plan where you’re going to camp. Of course, you can’t guarantee you’ll end up in the camp site you want, but Download Festival does have a handy map which shows all the campsites and the earlier you get there, the more likely you are to land the spot you want. There’s different areas for different ...

Camping with kids. You all know that I take DD with me, and though she is now 17 we've been camping as a couple (of crazed fools?) since she was 7. But not only did we start when DD was already old enough to be useful (!) I also only had to cope with one child. Today's guest post is from Amy who blogs over at Eps and Amy  who camped with two, and who started with a babe in arms! Here's her experience and advice. Camping with children, the good, the bad and the ugly! I have two children, now aged 5 and 8, and we first attempted camping when the eldest was just 9 months old. I bought a special camping travel cot and we get her used to taking naps in it a for a few weeks before we went. Unfortunately, once we got to the campsite trying to get her to go to sleep in daylight (tents are very see-through) and with a lot of noise going on around. In the end we gave up and had to take Bethany home. Not one to give up, we tried again when Bethany was around 2 years old. That ...

It's been quiet here lately as it's winter and only the bravest of us are still out camping (well, the brave and those with heating in their tent or caravan) So I thought I'd ask a few people to share some of their camping tales and advice. First off is Karen from over at Excuse This Honesty blog. And she has some excellent festival top tips, I'm not ashamed to say that the last one taught me something, it's genius and I'll be trying it out in future when I camp in summer! Photo Copyright: wavebreakmediamicro / 123RF Stock Photo Karen's Festival Camping Tips Having attended several festivals over the past 10 years, I can safely say none of them have been the same when it comes to camping. Some years have given us conditions which have been wonderful to set up camp in – others … well, not so good. The first thing I learned is to take an extra bag of tent pegs . No matter what I do, there's always going to be a tent peg that miraculously gets ea...

So having already heard from a festival virgin ( Mamafurfur here ) I thought we'd see what a festival goer was expecting from their first time at Camp Bestival. I have the pleasure to introduce you to @MyGorgeousBoys Tell  me a bit about yourself... My name is Louise and I am mum to boys aged 7 and 5. I have recently returned to education and am training as a primary school teacher. Before children I worked in IT but didn't go back to it after as wanted to make the most of them when they were little. I discovered the wonderful world of blogging when my 2nd son was around a year old and love it so much! Do you think of yourself as a country or a city sort? I love the city but since having children I have become more of a country sort - my kids love the great outdoors and anything that makes them happy is good.  Have you been camping before? If so where and what did you like/dislike about it? When I was little we did lots of family camping, a...