Camp Bestival 2013

Alice Langley set herself a mission this summer to see if she could take her children to a festival and enjoy it – here’s how it went

I was once told that life is over when children come along, that all I’d end up caring about is schools and snot.  Now I’m not one to really care for the opinions of others, especially such negative ones, yet when pregnant with my big little girl I couldn’t help but hear those words echo round my pregnancy-frazzled brain. Was my life about to be over?  Would I ever be ‘me’ again? Or was I destined for a life of just being ‘Mummy’?

Well fast-forward 5 years and life certainly is far from over. My husband and I are having more fun than ever.  Yes I may not go out till 4am anymore (well not every weekend anyway) and I will admit to devouring school reviews in the same way I used to eat up restaurant critiques, but I’m still me, I’m still Alice.

Now one thing Alice loves is a festival, spending my summer days laying in fields drinking beer, chilling with good friends and listening to music, there is nothing quite like it is there? But would this mix with children? I asked the lovely BritMums readers this exact question last month in my post and the over-riding response was that it would be wonderful to festival with children.

But could we really do it? Would this Essex Wife and her family survive? Well last weekend we found out.

Camp Bestival, billed as the best family festival there is, certainly didn’t disappoint. A weekend of new experiences, 4 days of sense tingling sights round every twist and turn.

Sleep was my main concern, well that and how I would survive on a student diet of Supernoodles and take-aways for a weekend, but I needn’t have worried. We weren’t woken up before 7am and once asleep, my lovely girls slept right through. That’s what I love about camping; take away the home comforts of every day life and you stop sweating the small stuff.

My girls, aged 1 and 4, along with their little buddies (the gorgeous girls of fellow blogger Modern Mummy), were quite honestly feral for the weekend.  Getting up each morning to run bare foot across the field to watch the ‘poo lorries’ come and clean the toilets and returning home each night with grubby knees and tired eyes, they embraced the festival spirit like pros.

It was a full on weekend, lots of people, lots of children and lots of fun. I came home shattered and in need of a good wash, but would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat.

So in answer to my question ‘festivals with children, am I mad?’ I can honestly say no I’m not.

Alice Langley is a Mum, a Wife and An Essex Girl. She blogs at anessexwife.com and can often be found procrastinating like a pro over on Twitter as @anessexwife.  Alice started blogging as a hobby to keep her brain working and her creative side alive while adjusting to her new life as a SAHM, but quickly found a passion and talent for writing long buried since school.  She is now embarking on a new journey, as she becomes a mature student studying for a degree in Journalism at South Essex University.

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