Sunrise: Another World is innovative, and imaginative, and altogether lovely

Sunday morning dawns fine and bright and we can't believe our luck. This is our second festival this year, and both have been fine. We didn't achieve that during the whole of last summer. We finish up the remaining food, and head in to the arena. The combination of glorious weather and a fantastic party mean that the day is starting slowly for lots of people – the smoothie stall is doing a roaring trade and more people are taking advantage of the therapeutic luxury of the spa and the therapies available in the Global Village. We are feeling a bit slow ourselves so we take a few minutes to meander through the Global Village and listen to the Drum Jam in the centre of the Tribe of Doris and watch the slow and relaxing movements of those taking advantage of the Yoga workshop. Behind us, we find the new concept of Gong Baths which sound amazing, and Didgeridoo healing which is something I'd like to learn more about.

It's been a while since we helped with The Lost Boys Apocalypse temple building exercise and we return there to see the construction nearing completion – partly due to a shortage of nails. I haven't ever seen this done at other festivals and it seems such a simple thing to do that has given endless enjoyment and a sense of achievement to so many children who return day after day to assist in the creation and build their own independent community. My hat goes off to the activity organizer, Jason Hobbs, who shows unswerving patience, calmness, and awe-inspiring multi-tasking skills throughout.

Wandering through The Shire, we find that The London Orchard are offering free pear juicing sessions which we take advantage of and get chatting to other festival-goers in the orchard gardens while reading the apple-based story books. It's a shame that we have to drive back later, and can't attend the cider tasting to take place later in the afternoon.

We attempt to get in on the Forest School activity who are fully booked, and the Survival Shelter building workshop but it's not running, so, as we are sitting near the Serendipity Dance tent, our daughter becomes interested in the Can Can workshop. I feel that the Can Can at this time of day requires a certain amount of energy that I don't have but she goes for it with gusto and learns how to do "scissors", "wooping", "shimmying", "shaking" in time for a performance at the end in the middle of The Shire. The boys don't feel up to the Can Can either and slope off to watch Calico Jack Choir singing sea shanties on the main stage followed by Duncan Disorderly & The Scallywags in the Spit and Sawdust pub.

Back to the Children's area, our youngest is entertained by Captain Barnacle, and Noisy Oyster before constructing an impromptu teddy from scrap materials in the craft tent, while our eldest gets involved with the DJ workshop.

We know we are going to have to set off before the headliners this evening as it is school in the morning so we set off to the main arena earlier than normal for tea and more doughnuts. The Inexplicables are just coming on stage. They won The Battle of the Bands from Bristol and successfully combine a saxophone and beatboxing and very clever lyrics. I haven't heard them before and I really like them.

Following The Inexplicables is Talisman who provide a heavy dub reggae that goes perfectly with the evening sun. It is with heavy hearts that we say our good-byes during their set and make our way to the exit.

I meet plenty of people over the weekend that had a lovely time. Others haven't had quite so good a time due to tent theft or noisy neighbours. One chap was commending everything apart from wanting seating dotted around to rest his weary back.

All in all, we loved the festival, and the lovely atmosphere soon smoothed over any upset we felt at the tent invasions. Sunrise: Another World is innovative, and imaginative, and altogether lovely, and it tops our list for 2014 already!

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