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Here are our Top Tips for Camp Bestival 2020

• Don’t forget where the car is parked!  If you are clever, you can set this as a location on your phone!  Don’t navigate by other cars, for example, mini busses parked up, you may find that they have moved by the time you come to leave (talking from experience here!).

• Ask the people on the gate to cut the ends of the wrist band for little ones…they can pull them tighter but not loosen them and it’s a bit of a trek to get back to the box office to get a new one (keep an eye on this, we discovered that little one had tightened the wrist band at bedtime so it wasn’t a great end to the day!).  Packing a pair of nail scissors for such an occurrence may be a good idea too, we hadn’t and had to go off in search of some!

• If your little one still fits in a wagon, take one or hire one, you absolutely need one!  Our littlest one is 4 years old and we did debate whether or not to take it. We needed it from the first evening onwards.  Not only does it keep them in the shade, it also makes sure you know where they are, stops them getting totally shattered and you can pull up by a show or act and they can watch from the comfort of the wagon. You can also shove stuff in it if they fancy a walk!  A word of warning, one person posted on a group that their wagon had been stolen so we tend to lock ours up if we are leaving it with a retractable combination lock – its small and handy and you don’t need a key!

• Take snacks, more snacks than you think you will need!  We always pack snacks that don’t need keeping in the fridge and something that is considered more of a treat to tempt the children.  Being out of routine and surrounded by exciting things, our 4 year old tends to not eat terribly well and get grumpy, meanwhile, the 9 year old runs round like crazy and is constantly starving!  We carry a box of biscuits, something simple like rich tea, fruit squeeze pouches, cereal bars and crisps. The WI tent is a real find, you can get simple sandwiches made up for fussy children and there is a superb selection of cake (gluten free sandwiches and cake for me too!).  I would recommend heading there once a day to top the kids up on simple food which they are likely to eat without breaking the bank!

Here are 36 great travel snack ideas!

• Make sure you carry re-fillable water bottles.  There are water taps all over the site and for those who don’t drink water well, you can carry a water enhance / squash drops etc.  It gets really pricey if you need to keep buying cans etc and in hot weather, you all need to drink plenty!

• Loos!  There is nothing like a festival loo!  However, we were really impressed by the frequency of children’s compost toilets.  These were cleaned regularly, nowhere near as smelly as the portaloos and there was far less of a queue as these were for children only.  For adults, there are loos you can pay for and at times, it was well worth the charity donation to be able to use a clean loo quickly!

• Quick meals…we found that it was a good idea to head back to the tent to give the kids and early tea before heading back out for the evening.  I am a big believer in keeping it simple on camp and so we had several meals of pasta, cooked over a simple gas ring, with a pot of pesto. Again, anything that doesn’t need to be kept in a fridge and fills the kids up. We supplement this with treats from vendors when we head back in.  We also take lunch for the kids out and about with us so we can feed them quickly. Both mine love almond butter wraps (again, quick, nutritious, filling and doesn’t need to be in the fridge!) and for a treat, a salami sausage wrapped in a wrap!

• Take festival stuff to avoid paying a fortune!  We took glitter, face jewels, bubbles and anything else we could think of to ensure that we had treats for the children without paying a fortune – the glitter and face jewels were a must as my daughter wanted these almost immediately!  The only thing I wished I had brought with me was a bubble gun as these were everywhere and we ended up buying one!  

Why not check out some Easy Festival Make up Ideas

• Set a limit!  We saw lots of advice on the Camp Bestival Facebook Group about this before hand.  Some suggested giving your child a budget (ours found this tricky!) others suggested that numbers of rides etc. were limited.  At £2.50-3.00 per ride, this can be expensive for two or more children so just be mindful before you go in and set a limit if you can!

• Don’t stress about routine!  We spent 4 days with our kids totally out of routine!  The little one napped (he doesn’t nap anymore!) and we let them stay out late…one thing we learned was that if they had a late night, they were much slower to get going in the morning which meant that the 9.30am activities were not as accessible as we thought they would be!  My advice would be to play it by ear and not worry about the change in routine – the week following Camp Bestival was a little out of sorts but we got back to routine eventually!

• Take ear defenders!  The music really is loud and if you really don’t want to miss something and the kids are with you, these help take the level of noise down a little so the kids are more likely to tolerate the music that little bit longer!

• All day sun cream is a must!  We have used this with our kids for the last year and it really is worth the money.  Put it on at the beginning of the day and providing the aren’t doing something likely to rub it off, swimming in the sea for example, it lasts all day and means you don’t have to constantly wrestle them as you re-apply throughout the day!

• Anything goes!  You really can dress in what you like!  The theme this year was heroes, however, despite buying capes etc.  Our two were too hot and bothered most of the time to wear these. We did, however, go all out with the glitter, hair and face jewels and let them wear what they wanted.  You don’t often get chances like these so it really is worth letting them (and you!) be as creative as you like!