To sum it up in just one word, WOW!! That is the only way I can even begin to describe our first massive music festival experience….. Camp Bestival has been running in Dorset for 14 years, so 2022 was the time to add their sister festival in Shropshire, so of course when we were asked if we’d like to attend we jumped at the chance.
This is our honest review of our experience of the very first Camp Bestival Shropshire at Weston Park, I hope you enjoy reading through it and I will be leaving links for anything mentioned at the bottom.
Day 1
The very first Camp Bestival Shropshire opened its gates to campers on Thursday 18th and a few smaller activities and acts were put on for those who chose to arrive on the Thursday, unfortunately due to other commitments we were unable to get there for Thursday. Fast forward to Friday morning, and due to unforeseen circumstances Greg was unable to attend so my brother stepped into the void and attended with myself and the girls. As we only live 20 minutes down the road from the idyllic Weston Park we decided to travel in each day, so on Friday morning we arrived at the Green Gate for check in to collect our passes and information for the whole weekend. Check in was really straight forward and the staff on the booth were very helpful, we were directed from there to drive to the yellow gate entrance where we would be directed by car park attendants to a space ready to walk into the festival. Once parked we all disembarked from the car, rucksacks and cameras in hand and headed to the entrance where we were greeted by security for bag checks and then we walked the last few minutes to the festival entrance past the abundance of campers who’d been settling in.
With Camp Bestival in full swing already, we decided to have a wander round to make ourselves familiar with the site lay out, we were greeted by Bollywood tent first off, which looked amazing, not far from this was the Big top and both were in full swing with well-me-oke in Bollywood and Dr Dolittle in the Big top. We moved on to check out where the Park stage was situated for the larger acts we wished to see over the weekend such as The Proclaimers, Scouting for Girls, Fat Boy Slim, Rag n Bone man and many more…. We then went round discovering the many traders that were in attendance before heading over to see the Shropshire lad with his whole cow cooking which happened to be near the circus tent and Temple woods. Discovering Temple woods was amazing, a lovely walk through the trees to find tree climbing, zip wires and mud kitchens amongst more, ending out by the lake where there was paddle boarding and wild swimming. Everything looked truly amazing and the weather was 100% on our side, a wonderful sunny weekend was on the cards and we couldn’t wait to check out some of the activities we’d discovered and have a go.
The girls were so very excited and overwhelmed by the amount of things there was to do, but of course we had to get their festival glitter get up on their faces which thrilled them no end, we had a wander round, before heading to the Park Stage to catch Mister Maker, Rebecca Keatley and the shapes and took photos, the girls took part in a fake wedding in the inflatable chapel which they absolutely loved, then by this time we were getting hungry so decided to check out the many food vendors and grab some lunch which we enjoyed! Moving on we discovered the axe throwing which my brother was eager to check out and have a go at, this was right next to the general store which meant we could pick up some drinks and snacks for later in the evening to keep us going. The extreme bike battle gang who were doing 3 shows a day everyday of the festival happened to be next to the axe throwing so we managed to catch their final battle of the day and the girls had their picture with the riders after the show, Georgie gave them both a high five. By this time it was almost time to check out the proclaimers so we headed for ice-cream and the park stage to get a good space as close to the stage as we could for a great view, of course the proclaimers were absolutely fantastic, next up on the park stage was scouting for girls who were also amazing. Sadly Friday we did not stay for Becky Hill, due to my brother being in work early the next day, but I have to say day 1 was absolutely fabulous and we had an early night in preparation for day 2.
Day 2
Early start again for day 2, as my brother was working and Greg was still poorly my dad came for the day with us, the girls were very excited to show their Grandad round the festival site, day 2 was also the day of the influencer meet up and the day we finally got to meet the lovely Kaz and Lily http://www.instagram.com/snowkazadventures who I have been insta buddies with for a very long time, to start we checked out the Bollywood tent which we had not been in on the Friday and the girls loved the music and big balloons, we had a lovely boogie and took some lovely pictures. By this time Grandad was craving coffee so we headed off to the tic tac skate school which was situated next to the Helter Skelter and not far from the giant Bouncy castle and the Big Build, skate school is where we found Kaz and Lily and this is where Megan found a love of skateboarding, the instructor Tom was absolutely fabulous and really got all the children and adults involved in the classes. Megan and Lily quickly became the best of friends and whilst I took my dad and Georgie off for a walk round and to find coffee this skate school is where Megan stayed for over 2hours.
On having a little wander we came across the Magic Teapot and decided this is where we would have a cuppa together, what an amazing experience it was, £10 deposit for the mugs which once returned you were reimbursed and then pay what you wish for your drinks and it was a lovely atmosphere. After our cuppa we headed over to the Lucy and Yak stand and had a nosy at the gorgeous clothes and accessories they’d brought to the festival, we also headed to the dress up tent where grandad bought the girls a mask each and mummy got a sparkly gold bucket hat, then we headed back to grab Megan at the tic tac skate school so we could grab food and get ready to head to the influencer meet up where we met some of the management team and bloggers and vloggers alike and it was an lovely experience meeting people I have followed on Instagram for years. Megan then went back off to skate school with Lily and Kaz whilst we had a wander, the girls ended up with a bucket hat each courtesy of mama. We caught Gok Wan on the Barclay card stage with his DJ set and the girls got some blue candyfloss, before meeting up with my brother at 7 as he came back, and he bought himself, the girls and me a neon t-shirt each from a lovely company called Smiley halve, and we then headed to the park stage again to finish off our evening with Example and Fatboy Slim. The girls loved this experience they stayed near the stage for Example, but when Fatboy slim was due on stage it got very compact so grandad took them out to near the bar and food areas to go for some fairground rides whilst me and Will watched Fatboy slim, this was a fantastic set and definitely worth the wait.
Day 3
Final day of the festival for us, Will came with us again due to Greg being poorly still, when we arrived inside the festival we met Mr Motivator and got a picture which was amazing considering I used to watch him on GMTV years ago. Greg’s sister and partner and eldest son had tickets for the final day so they also joined us, we had a chilled day and checked out a few things we hadn’t seen like the the circus where the girls got up and sang in the talent show and Megan had me and Uncle Will in tears with her rendition of Ed Sheeran’s Visiting hours, we also said our goodbyes to Kaz and Lily. We caught Mr Motivator on stage, got a few drinks at the bar and took some more pictures, we caught one more show with the extreme bike battle guys and Will got some awesome footage of them, we grabbed some snacks and had another wander. We were super excited to watch the finale fireworks but before all this we did some fairground rides, checked out some other areas before getting organised to watch the Faithless DJ set which was absolutely awesome and the kids loved it as we were right at the front! We all did toilet runs before the final Park stage act of the night which was Rag n Bone man, and all I can say is WOW he was so awesome everyone loved him, once his set was done it was time for the amazing firework finale which did not disappoint.
The whole 3 days as a whole was an amazing experience and one we’d like to repeat next year if we are invited back, and we are thinking of camping next year as it all looked amazing plus the kids are desperate to try camping. I will be linking as much as possible below for you to check out for next years updates etc….We couldn’t have been more appreciative of being asked to attend the very first Camp Bestival Shropshire.
http://shropshire.campbestival.net/
http://www.instagram.com/campbestivalshropshire
http://www.instagram.com/tictacskateschool
http://www.instagram.com/smileyhalves
http://www.instagram.com/snowkazadventures
http://www.instagram.com/will89d
These are all the links I could find for what we saw over the 3 days, bottom ones are for the lovely Kaz and Lily, hope you enjoy the read and thankyou for the continued support, you are all amazing.
Kayleigh x
