kids' overview

Hello there, my name is Pickle and I'm 12 nearly thirteen. I've been going to festivals since I was 2, when I went to Glastonbury, and we have been going to an average of 8 to 12 festivals a summer. This year at Camp Bestival I thought I would review their festival from my own perspective, so here it is...

Well we arrived at the road to get in to the festival at 4pm, you would expect some queues from any festival, especially in a first year. But to still be trying to get in at 6pm was a bit ridiculous, although kids played outside of the cars.

We had decided to hire a Tipi in Boutique Camping, very glamorous, you even get to park in a special car park near by, great hey! But not really no, this review would have a much better start if it wasn't for this, we were given a special pass so we could get into the right part of the car parking area, so as we drove up to were we could clearly see the entrance the stewards saw the sign in our window and still directed us a different way.



When we reached the end of the new route we had taken we were parked up and then realised that the Boutique Camping was on the other side of the site upon complaining to the stewards they said that they couldn't do anything about it and we had to go to collect our wristbands and trek across the site.

So we took as much as we could carry up to the ticket exchange, and waited, to make things worse it start to rain as well, so when we got to the front, a security guard was checking peoples bags, yes in the rain after people had been waiting with small children for hours, so definitely a festival to get to early.



Once we were allowed in we headed of the Boutique, it was very nice and worth the extra money, with separate porta-loos and, cafes, chai shops, a cinema, campfire with sofas and piano, and showers. I had a nice risotto for dinner, and then went over to watch Chuck Berry he was very, very good and had everyone dancing. That was it for the first night.

Well Saturday started with me getting a programme and then we cooked breakfast, this is definitely a good idea to stop us from spending money every morning and skipping the wait at for the arena to open.

Then we went over to the kids field to watch the 'insect circus', don't panic because it was people in costumes. I went with my cousin to get her face painted, it was done very well and she really liked it, plus, there were 2 bouncy castles 1 for under 5's and 1 for over 5's, a circus tent, a dressing-up tent, and a painting tent were everyone painted part of a castle.



In the Kids area there was also a bar called the 'Sea View Inn' (named as there was a fantastic view of the sea). We then stuck around to watch Punch and Judy, the only criticism of the kids area was the ridiculous line for toilets, which there clearly wasn't enough of, then, heading over to the main arena we could see lots of characters from Alice in Wonderland as that was the dressing up theme.

Next we went along The Dingly Dell Trail were there wais a park and me and my cousin (who is 3 by the way) went on the swings and slides for a bit, there was also some mime type acts going on around a large pond in the woodland area. There was even a petting zoo style area as part of the trail with sheep, ponies, rabbits, and other animals.



It was now approaching 6 so we went to find the Mad Hatters tea party. That was good because it was a joke telling competition. We headed up to the castle next in plenty time for The Flaming Lips, we were right by Wayne Coyne when he came down from the castle in his bubble followed by the pink robots. We then went over to the front and watched from right by the stage, it was a really good show and they had confetti bombs and balloons everywhere.

When they finished dead on 11 we went over to go through The Dingly Dell Trail at night it was all lit up with fairy lights and colours and people were doing mimes again.

So Sunday, the last day well Mum got up nice and early and went to a Billy Brag inspired church service and came back singing its praises, well the rest of us started the day going to the swing boats, then watching the jousting.

The jousting was very good and we were all booing and hissing the baddies and cheering the goodies, and we watched the Singstar where people were singing on tv.



We went back to the kid's area to watch some music on the insect stage. They even had Maypole Dancing. For lunch I had a Manna Organic salad, although they also had picnics made up for us at the Farmers Market, and cheap drinks, that was nice.

We hung out there for most of the day but went over to the Castle stage to watch The Wurzels after that I went to the Paint 'n' Take and spent some time painting a fish, it was really fun and I got to take it home at the end. My cousins went home having had a great time, and their parents enjoyed it too.



Then we went to sit in the garden of the pretty looking cider bar to watch Kate Nash, she was really good, and gave out flags to the audience. Then we went home and it was very quick to get out.

So other than the problems of getting in, it was a great festival. If you're taking kids, get there early as it has so much to do, and you will have a terrific time.

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