kids' overview

I am an eleven year old boy named Joseph. I have been asked to do a review of this certain festival known as Cornbury. It was my first ever time at Cornbury, but hopefully not the last.

A great, big set of fields was the sight set before me as I entered the festival campsite on the warm, bright and sunny Friday. We received some free Muller yoghurt from a stall at the entrance. They had many types, such as two flavours of rice pudding, low fat yoghurt, three flavours of corners etc. They were extremely tasty. I came back to them throughout the festival, as they also had an area in the main festival site. The people who were at the stalls giving out the free yoghurt were very friendly too and they had all the lines such as 'contains as much calcium as a glass of milk'.

Where we camped, the neighbours were pleasant. I didn't get too involved with them as they were all adults. They were very considerate too. They placed their tents to act as extra wind-breakers for us. Apparently they had been many times to this festival and in their opinion, this festival was better than Glastonbury (however I wouldn't know this as I have never been). The arts and crafts lady was also nearby us and she had put up a hammock and swing on some trees for all the kids to play on. She had also placed some fascinatingly gigantic snails near one tree, and hinted to lots to people about them. Clever her!

During the evening, I bought some churros with chocolate sauce. These apparently are Spanish doughnuts which are long and seem to be pushed through some kind of playdough shaper of a star when being made. Tasty! They are covered in sugar and optional cinnamon according to taste. During the eating of these delicacies a huge, gigantic flying object came across from the distance... A hot air balloon! It had a highly skilled driver. I know this because he managed to almost crash into some power-lines without actually crashing! It was a fantastic sight.

Saturday was the day on which the main arena finally opened. A great sight! In one corner of the field lay about 20 fantastic fairground rides although each was labelled with outrageous prices. £1.50 for one ride on the toddler's miniature fairground ride (not that I went on it of course!) The rides were fabulous, however not value for money.

There were three stages: The Main, Riverside and Word/Oxford Folk stages. I was not too interested in the music but there were familiar songs being played such as 'Sex on Fire' and 'Staying out for the Summer'. A cheerful background.

They had the most delicious waffles ever there, with maple syrup. They were heavenly! Unfortunately with the evening's bad weather and my sister suddenly being ill I went home early Saturday evening. However my brother stayed along with my Dad, and this is where he takes over.

I'm Liam, thirteen years old, and Cornbury was my 8th festival since Mum & Dad started taking us in 2006. I arrived around lunchtime on the Saturday, and stayed with Dad after the rest of the family went home early.

I thought the Cornbury festival was really good on the music, but there wasn't a lot to do. I enjoyed a lot of the acts including Imelda May, 3 Daft Monkeys, and Scouting for Girls. I thought Scouting for Girls did a very good set. They kept the audience involved playing many recognisable covers, and they played their catchy songs at the right times.

The 3 stages were good at showing different acts. At the main stage, you saw the big bands, at the Word/Oxford Folk Festival stage you saw more of folk and blues, and at the Riverside stage, you saw more guitars and rock.

I thought the music in general was good. We found ourselves listening to bands we'd never heard of, such as Lightnin Willy, and Contraband, and enjoying them. In fact, after we heard Lightnin' Willy at The Riverside Stage and finding out he was doing an acoustic set for BBC Oxford, we went straight down to that tent to listen.

The food was delicious, like 'La Grande Bouffe', and 'Pure Pie' where you could get nice, chunky chips. There was also food that I've never even heard of like Churros, which were fantastic. And there were plenty of places to get vegetarian food.

There was a whole fairground and loads of good rides. There were dodgems, thrill rides and little rides for younger children. The only bad thing about it would be that they cost a lot. I didn't think there was a lot else for me to do though. There weren't any workshops which I would see at other festivals, and there was nothing much that I wanted to buy.

The size of the festival was quite big. It took five minutes to get to the main area from the campsite, which was all right, but it was mostly uphill, and it got a bit muddy on some parts so you can see the difficulty. The main area was quite big, loaded with shops and food stalls. And there was a big space for the crowd to come into when the acts came on. We also saw a proper break-dancing group, and at another time two other dancers who were good and humorous at the same time.

The toilets were overall kept in a good state, there was mostly always toilet paper, and they didn't always stink unlike other festivals. But the toilets near where we camped seemed to take ages to get to, so I think there could have been more of them. And also, some toilets did run out of hand-soap.

The campsite was a big area, which got crowded with tents, but got much more dispersed on Sunday afternoon. It was a bit noisy, having a beer-tent that had small, live acts, but sometimes it was just the neighbours that kept me awake at night!

After the main acts had finished, like Sugababes and Scouting for Girls, there wasn't much else to do. There were no more events, and the only acts were the ones in the beer-tent in the campsite, or the music from the Disco Shed. All the rides had finished although the lights were still on. There was mainly a lot less life in the main area, although we did enjoy pizza there late one evening.

I saw a lot of security around the area. At one time when we tried to enter the main arena they checked my Dad's bag for any cans and stuff like that. It made me feel a bit safer, but also worried that they'd stop access from certain areas.

So overall it was a good festival with good music but with not enough to do without spending a lot of money.

Latest Updates