Camp Bestival, Dorset 2024 - magical memories from an enchanting festival

I sometimes think I’ve done the festival thing the wrong way round. When my babies were at their littlest, we did the big ‘uns – Latitude, Wilderness, Blue Dot, and the like – all family "friendly", but with slightly wilder, bigger, more adulty vibes. I figured if I was going to be up all night with babes in arms I may as well be in a field, on the fringes of some great music and colourful experiences.

It’s only now that my Small Folk are older – in the realms of teens and tweens – that I’m experiencing the UK’s ultimate family summer festival for the first time. This year the real question was, could I as a solo human person, cope with taking 4 young ‘uns away to a festival for the whole weekend?

The answer is a resounding, “YES”. Camp Bestival is very much dedicated to the teeniest of peeps, and a good time to be had for their adults. There are so many babes in arms, and it’s lovely to see that it is indeed possible for parents to have a fun, relaxing time and share the beauty of music festivals that our generation has grown up enjoying, with their families. There are some specific qualities at Camp Bestival that allow this to happen, and the entire jaunt is thoughtfully designed around the small but important details that will help the experience be as fulfilling as possible, such as kids under five going free or the Camp Kids Extra pass, which provides meal tokens for children so that your food budget stays on track, and food stalls offering kids portions for a fraction of the cost. This year too, there’s the new addition of an Explorer’s Passport, which consists of a little fill-in-able booklet of cutesy illustrations, maps and space to write notes of memories and experiences, which can be stamped or stickered at various checkpoints around the place. The joy of taking older youngers however is that you can let them roam free within the safe parameters of Lulworth Castle Estate without worry – it’s like a magical Eurocamp on the film set of The Labyrinth.

Then of course, there’s the entertainment and activities – of the +350 acts on offer, many of them are like catnip for kids: Mister Maker, Hacker T Dog, Brainiac Live and Mr Tumble to name but a few. I tried to get my crew to invest in the science workshops and Horrible Histories performance, but they told me politely but firmly, that they were not at all interested in anything remotely educational. So we opted for the rowdier jollies that we could all genuinely enjoy together, which was fine by me. A particularly unexpected hit was Dick and Dom’s DJ set, bringing the ‘90s back to the CB crowds, mixing some absolute bangers of the decade with drum and bass beats, and some hilarious showmanship from the double act who used to present The Broom Cupboard.

A firm favourite patch of the weekend was the deeply unpronounceable Caravanserai, a quirky little enclosure made up of vintage caravans, centred around two stages, a hair salon and a bar or two. One of the absolute joint highlights of the entire weekend was New Daze – a duet comprising Jess and Oli from Torbay, who bought a storming set to Friday evening, singing some originals and some covers to get the crowds moving – "Drunken Sailor", "Kung Fu Fighting", "Send Me on My Way" and "Roxanne" got us in the groove. Strong on the strings with some brilliant guitar, ukulele (and a kazoo), their energy and vigour was the perfect folk rock combo.

This year, the theme was “Intergalactic, Aliens and Space” which saw hoards of people in the most spectacular fancy dress, from inflatable alien-abduction suits, to homemade rocket adornments for buggies, lots of green lycra and facepaints and the spangliest of space suits. The outfits converged in an incredible fancy dress parade – where the winner bagged a ticket to next year’s festival.

In amidst the recognisable headline names, you can stumble across some new music in the making. One such memorable act was Katie Grace who performed a mesmerising afternoon set in the Big Top. The North Shields born singer-songwriter who recently won the Alan Hull Award for songwriting is a dreamy mix of folksy lyrics and strong melodic hooks that are reminiscent of a Dawson’s Creek soundtrack to my nostalgic ears, but fresh enough in tone and style for a youthful crowd to join in with.

Of mid-weight fame was Ellie Sax, a fabulous sequin-clad Ministry of Sound artist who brings her saxophone sound to the best known DJ grooves – but it’s the headline act of McFly that really gets the Mums going on Friday night. Opening with “Where Did All the Guitars Go”, their kitschy rock pop and high energy allowed for a good bop through well known tracks “On the Radio”, “Room on the Third Floor”, “Obviously” and “Shine a Light”. There was some cheeky “I say busted! You say suck!” yelling thrown in, alongside a super sweet moment where a young fan called Gracie was hauled onto the stage to join in with “It’s All About You” – a moment she will never forget.

Strolling back past an assortment of dads neatly packed into the Big Top for Orbital we opted instead for a quick ride on the Big Wheel, and managed to get a good night’s kip – which is a small but important point to mention for those with younger kids that you won’t be kept awake all night by rambunctious revellers.

What better way to start a Saturday than a quick bounce on the world’s largest bouncy castle, then a stroll through the Dingly Dell for a spot of clay pot making and a play in the shade, before Yours Truly is allowed a moment of calm in the Slow Motion wellness area. A vagus nerve going bath from Ram Under Rai was the perfect antidote to the energy needed for the rest of the fest, and set us all up for a strong afternoon at The Castle Stage, starting with The Amy Winehouse Band, featuring Amy’s original band and fronted by Bronte Shande, celebrating some great tracks such as “Back to Black”, “Tears Dry On Their Own”, “Mr Jones”, “Rehab” and finishing strong with “Valerie”.

Another (slightly unexpected if I’m honest) family favourite of the weekend was The Darkness. Frontman Justin Hawkins gave the crowds a rip snorting rock and roll show, described in their words as “a rockgasm of inordinate proportions”. Blowing up an amp in true style, they covered up the technical difficulties by wearing a fan’s t-shirt so that it “will smell like rock star” and whipping everyone into a frenzy with “Friday Night”, new tracks, wild guitar solos and even a little bit of their Christmas hit, before everyone went completely hair-thrashing berserk for “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”. Having been off the scene for a number of years, it’s definitely time to get these guys back on the stage and the festival will have won them a number of new fans.

Saturday night’s headline act of Paloma Faith was the ultimate pinnacle of the weekend. Bedecked in red hotpants, fur coat and baseball cap, the feisty singer burst onto the stage with "There's Nothing More Human Than Failure" and rolled straight into “This Is How You Leave a Man”. Imparting nuggets of wisdom in between acts, she tells us: "If there are any little girls in the audience, I hope you will be bad girls and not good women. I'm telling you from experience you can be terribly, terribly bad and get the same results" – to whoops and cackles from Mama’s all 

over the mosh pit. There was a snort-lol in dedicating “Cry Baby” to the men in the audience, but then the heels were off and there was head-banging a-plenty for some new tracks from her most recent album The Glorification of Sadness (our new soundtrack of the summer) alongside well known hits like “Picking Up the Pieces”. After a saucy wolf-whistle, she commented: “20 years ago I would have called you misogynistic, now I’m just grateful.” Talk about playing to your crowd. Paloma’s gorgeously down to earth chat, insights into the ups and downs of her own life as a Mum, and high energy bouncing around with her band was infectious. She’s loveable, funny, and delivered a pitch perfect 3-song finale that we would all know and join in with – “Sweet Lullaby”, “Everything is Changing” and “Only Love Can Hurt Like This” – a moment one of my Mini’s declared as “the best moment of my life” as we swayed along, mobile phones lighting up the balmy night.

Sunday morning contained a lot of fomo as we realised time was running out and we hadn’t booked any activities in the craft tent (we missed the fashion recycling where you could use sewing machines to create an outfit out of fabulous old scraps of vintage material – although the crochet station was free). There’s always plenty going on (even Enchanted Cinema, Parkour and Beekeeping) – we made do with watching some excellent circus skills, trying on some VR goggles, talked about how much we didn’t want to do the roller skating rink fear of humiliation and debated whether The Smallest should queue up at Moose Toys Superhappy Playhouse to claim a free Fart-Blaster toy.

A slightly sweltering Sophie Ellis Bextor took to the stage on Sunday afternoon, telling us she was glad she was wearing her bathing suit (a silver tassel-ed sequin number and some rather splendid sunnies) as it was so boiling hot. Her band, who had come onstage with shark, pigeon and dinosaur rubber masks on, understandably ditched their headgear after the first song. Happily chatting about how early her kids had woken her up that morning, she told the crowd she’s here to provide some “gorgeous, lovely, disco fun”. Bringing the kitsch with “Crying at the Discotheque”, “Get Over You”, a crowd-pleasing mashup of “Lady (Hear Me Tonight)” mixed with “This Ain’t Love” and covers of ABBA’s “Man After Midnight” and Madonna’s “Like A Prayer”, she finished with “Murder on the Dancefloor” as the icing on the cake.

Special guest James Arthur was a much anticipated but rather dour end to the evening. The singer was clearly suffering from end of tour exhaustion and throat issues, so encouraged the crowds to sing along to the songs they knew, including hits like “Impossible”, “Re-Write the Stars” and the slow leccy guitar jam “Sermon”. To be fair to the fella, he's clearly going through a lot, but his comment of "if you're all going to stand there like zombies it's not going to be very fun", went down like a cold cup of sick with the crowds. We did eventually warm up and deliver our best vocals for “Trainwreck” as fireballs puffed out of the front of the stage, but the crowds started to wane as the cover of “A Thousand Years” played, before a fabulous set of fireworks cheered everyone up over the spectacular backdrop of Lulworth Castle. 

Safe to say we’re all Camp Bestival converts, and I can’t recommend it highly enough as the ultimate family festival. Top tips for next year are: book quick for the earlybird tickets, set aside six months to plan your fancy dress and take Friday and Monday off work and stay for the whole shebang to soak up every last drop of fun and freedom.

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