Wilderness Festival (6th August 2012)

Relaxed and hospitable long weekend camping in a glorious and spacious country park setting. It was a really enjoyable festival, my 3rd with Fiona, this time we were camping with a hen party belonging to a friend of a friend.

Lucky to have sunshine for some amount of every day and no rain. Bit chilly and windy as the Sun was setting but plenty of people still wore costumes, from the vintage to the bizarre and all points between! Took some photos and wrote day-by-day summaries, below.

Friday 11th August 2012

  1. Picked up from our flat by Alys (Welsh spelling) near 2:30pm.
  2. Arrived at grassy car park near 5pm, with big Oak trees. (Photo 1.)
  3. Found the box office with clean portaloos – just what we needed!
  4. Took a while to get tickets sorted out.
  5. Went in and started looking for the hen party we were tagging along with.
  6. Found them quite easily as they were quite near the entrance and had two gazeebos!
  7. We think this was the only such arrangement on the campsite.
  8. Put up the bargain £35 3-person tent with porch by Eurohike.
  9. Fiona had found it online just a couple of weeks beforehand.
  10. Introduced ourselves to the group.
  11. Wandered off towards the festival proper.
  12. Was actually quite a long walk due to the setting having so much space! (Photo 2.)
  13. When it got dark it also got quite chilly.
  14. Walked down to the pair of lakes and saw the lights reflected in the surface.
  15. Found a big joined tent with a sentimental female singer having a great performance. (Photo 3.)

Saturday 12th August 2012

  1. Near 2pm we went to the main stage.
  2. Saw a group of 3 female singers with instruments called the Staves. (Photo 1.)
  3. Moved away from main stage.
  4. Explored the site and found a slope with great views over the long boating lake. (Photo 2.)
  5. Had delicious cream tea on the upper floor of a double-decker bus from 4pm to about 4:45pm. (Photo 3.)
  6. Returned to main stage.
  7. Cloud Control were playing – seemed to be a favourite amongst the youths. (Photo 4.)
  8. We saw them once last year in a smaller and sweatier venue.
  9. Went for a free mountain bicycle ride with a young guide from Kent.

Sunday 13th August 2012

  1. At about 11am we played some frisbee on the wonky cricket pitch.
  2. Took some photos of the flags. (Photo 1.)
  3. Returned to the camp site.
  4. On our way we walked past the Green Crafts area, including the traditional wood-working stalls. (Photo 2.)
  5. Before packing up our tent I got Fiona to model it, like a game show from last century. (Photo 3.)