a kids' perspective of Shambala festival

Hi, my name's Liam, I'm 12. My first ever festival was 2 years ago at Beautiful Days and since then I've been to 5 other festivals. I love them mostly because of the music and the food. Well anyway, here is my view of Shambala Festival 2008.

When we got there I was really surprised that there were no queues whatsoever. I withstood a painful endurance of carrying some really awkward chairs and a bag-pack full of stuff into the site. Getting up the tent was easy, I was just sitting on the chair I brought down and reading the Shambala programme.



At about 4pm we went down to the main site and went exploring. There was a crazy golf course with loads of obstacles which when I did it was very frustrating and tricky but also overwhelmingly fun. There was also a big sand pit, a big lake, loads of hot tubs, shops, workshops and big tents with loads going on. Later on that day as the sun was starting to set, they let us all into the forest. Inside there were loads of figurines, a monster which at night looked amazing and loads of other things which are quite hard to explain. As I continued with Mum and my brother we found a giant climbing net hanging from tree to tree. I found it fantastic but my brother didn't because he hurt his already-sore toe on the net. We all ended that night by listening to The Beat who I thought were great, and having a great hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows from Granny's Gaff.



The following day, Saturday, was a lot the same except this time we explored the kids' area in more detail. I found that almost everything there were art workshops! My sister painted a bird there which we have now hanging on a stick somewhere. We also decorated some fairy cakes, in a shed packed with wasps that were all high from the sweets on offer (no offence to the people who ran it, it was very nice). Then there was the biggest fancy dress parade that I have seen and probably the biggest I will ever see in my lifetime. There were people dressed as fairies, bees, blue and green people, giant pirates and much more. It was huge! Afterwards I got two falafels for Mum and me, my sister had bangers and mash, my brother didn't have anything because he was feeling ill, and Dad just didn't get round to getting anything.

At about 10pm we watched a competition with SamSam Bubbleman at Bubble Inc. It was to see who could blow the most bubbles in one big bubble. The winner did 24 I think, then Sam did it and he did more than 40. He then told us that his record was over 140! He then showed us a trick, it was the world's smallest bubbles. First he blew some small bubbles, then he caught one on his tongue, then he blew some even smaller bubbles out of his mouth. It was astonishing!

Sunday came and Dad & I went off exploring whilst Mum, my sister and my brother went off to play crazy golf. We went off to get a drink from the Heatwave Sauna. I got a very nice tasting chai and a piece of chocolate cake with some spare change I had from yesterday, and Dad got a proper coffee. We both enjoyed it very much. After that we went down the main stage to watch the opening act, Pritam Singh. I was amazed at the speed with which the drummer banged the drums, it just looked unnatural, he must have practised the drums a lot. The music they made was good overall, very different, but I really liked the drumming.

After listening to them play for about 15 minutes, Dad told me that Mum was in a nearby shop, so I went over to her trying to find something to buy. I found a didgeridoo, so I bought that. Then we all went to the kids' field to find something to do there. My sister and I went to an area to colour and name some villains, superheroes and monsters. After that, Dad and I went to start trips to go pack things from the tent. We did two trips to the car, then the rest of my family went to take the rest of the stuff to the car whilst Dad and I packed the tent away. Once got back to the car, Mum and my brother stayed in the car because my brother wasn't feeling well. So Dad, my sister and I went back to the site, as in about an hour, Nizlopi were on, the only band I recognised and wanted to see. All I had to wait was one hour, so we started off by looking around. In one of the big tents, two UK champion skippers were doing a skipping workshop, and we all watched some drunk people skipping and failing, it was quite funny.



So then we headed of to Granny's Gaff to get some hot chocolate. Whilst we had it we watched a game of giant chess being played. It was a great game, with loads of funny comments, and finally after that we started to head off to Nizlopi. Just as we started walking, we had some bad news from Mum that the car didn't work and had a flat battery!

I was so sad, the only band I wanted to see out of the whole festival, I couldn't see. We went back the car, called a breakdown service, and waited for them to check the car. After a couple of hours, they got there, recharged the battery and we set off back of home.

So that's it, my overall view was that it was an absolutely fantastic festival and I really enjoyed it.

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