Last weekend, at the grand old age of 36, I attended my very first festival!
I've wanted to go to a festival ever since my teenage years, but in all honesty - I've just never been the outdoorsy type and the thought of camping in a muddy field for 2 or 3 days with no access to hair straighteners or a nice clean loo was just too offputting.
Now that I'm a mom to three little boys, I've found myself drawn to the family festival scene year after year. The mix of adult focused bands, and child focused puppet shows and TV stars seems so appealing and yet still...something stops me.
So when we were invited along to Glas-Denbury - Devon's very own family-friendly festival in Denbury, just a 20 minute drive from our doorstep - it was the ideal chance to dip my toe in to the water of festival life!
The idea of camping with 3 under 5 was still a step too far in my mind (not to mention the fact that we own no camping equipment, so it would have been a huge extra expense too!) so we decided to go along as day guests instead.
The festival took place on Friday and Saturday, so we went along at around 7 pm on the Friday...a couple of hours after it had opened, in the hopes that if we went later...the boys might last for longer, as we were really keen to catch the act who were closing the show that night...none other than Motown Goddesses Martha Reeves & The Vandellas!
I have always been a HUGE fan of Motown music, and so I was really excited at the prospect of catching Martha live...her set started at 10.30 that night and I kept everything crossed that the boys would last for long enough.
The weather was glorious all weekend, and after 7 the sun had set enough to make the heat bearable for us all - we spent a few hours circling around the various stalls selling everything from glitter clothing to fabulous food offerings, dancing away in the Kitchen Disco tent to 90s classics, and trying out the inflatables in the Play Area. Tyne absolutely loved the Bumper Balls and went on them at least 3 or 4 times! (His little brothers loved getting to push him around, too!)
We enjoyed some drinks and snacks (doughnuts and delicious brownies!), and the boys had a whale of a time raiding the Photo Prop Suitcase and listening to the storytellers who were circling around.
Finally, it was time to head to the main arena to watch Martha Reeves and thankfully - the boys just about lasted for long enough! The set was much longer than I expected, way over an hour and honestly...at 77 years old, Martha Reeves took my breath away with her soulful voice, energetic performance and sassy charisma!
The little ones nodded off in the pram during the show, but Tyne lasted for the entire performance and we danced our socks off when she closed the show with my favorite - Dancing In The Street!
The following day, we headed back around 5pm in a bid to avoid the heat again. This time we found a few new additions including a mechanical bull ride that my son loved, and the disco tent was now a Silent Disco which the boys all really enjoyed!
Unfortunately, after such a late night, the boys weren't up to spending too long there on the Saturday and we headed home around 8pm but we had such a great time!
We found Glas-denbury to have such a friendly, welcoming atmosphere to families with young children. The toilets were clean, there was a great selection of food and drinks, and we thought their efforts at being as plastic-free and eco friendly as possible were great.
We loved our weekend at Glas-Denbury and would definitely go back again next year!
To find out more about the festival, please visit http://www.glas-denbury.co.uk/
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