Anyone going to CarFest this year, North or South

[TheSkiingGardener]

We're off to CarFest South and are lucky enough to have a camper van ticket and I'm starting to get excited.

Anyone else going this year?

[Hulababy]

We are going to Car Fest North - first time. Only ever been to a small festival before, twice (Wychwood) so imagining Car Fest will be somewhat bigger.
We are taking DD's friend too so hoping there is plenty to keep two 12y busy - sure there will.

Bought our tent last week = old pop up 3 man had finally died and really was too small for even the 3 of us now! Big 6 birth tunnel type tent, so huge compared to old one!

Took it for a nights camping last night and it was great.

[Hulababy]

It was one from Go Outdoors. A 6 birth tunnel type tent. We wanted one with a bedroom either side as we will have 12y DDs friend with us (and did this weekend too) so DH wanted to have privacy for the and for him. And we wanted one we could stand up inside.

[Hulababy]

www.gooutdoors.co.uk/hi-gear-zenobia-elite-6-family-tent-z286217?utm_expid=223934-34.R8LqMIVDTnODGZpgzsg0nQ.1&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gooutdoors.co.uk%2Fcamping%2Ftents%2Ffamily

This one - good price for us, especially as we don't really camp. This weekend was first time in years. We are very much camping for one night when it is warm and sunny types :D

[landwhale]

Hellooo we're going to north :) very excited!

Does anyone know what the terrain is like there?

We were going to buy a garden trolley to pull dc around in (4&2) but not sure how much space they would have.. what size do those of you with wagons have and did it have sufficient space? (would ideally also hold small cool bag/box and we'll prob attach deckchairs to the side...)

Also how much money will we realistically need? I think we're planning on doing our own breakfast every day and our own lunch and tea for half the time.. (so prob buying 3 meals for 4 of us) Do the kids activities cost extra?

:D

[landwhale]

Thats a good idea - we're camping offsite so hoping our breakfast will be fairly laid back and easy.. (and my parents are coming and they wake up at 6am without fail so we will no doubt wake to the smell of bacon :D)

Did you not have any trouble with taking booze into the festival fields? We were thinking of hiding it in the wagon amongst the kids but it seems wrong....!!

[TheSkiingGardener]

We've never had trouble getting booze in, but it was usually in the kids change bag and we went in when it opened!

[TheSkiingGardener]

They were taking anything obvious off of people later I the day last year. But we were in plebs camping!

[threeicklepickles]

landwhale the camping area varies, some bits are flat, others on a slope.
We went last yr and just had the buggy - phil n teds - for dc (3.5 and 1.5) which was fine. Eldest doesn't like it now but we will take it again, as it was handy to attach bags/stools etc to.
The main festival site is flat, lots of tarmac paths so as long as it doesn't rain continuously pulling a trolley around should be ok.

We will prob take a similar amount of cash to teamedward.

They didn't let you take glass bottles into the 'arena' but ok in camping area.

[landwhale]

Thanks, dh has already designed the wagon now so it looks like we're taking that either way..!!

Does anyone know if kids activities etc cost extra? What's there that costs money? Other than food and drink (& i assume there's some stAlls/shops?)

[TheSkiingGardener]

That's a good summary!

Food and drink really add up, so the more of your own you take, the better. The kids driving stuff was excellent and was £2-3 I think? But it all went to charity. There's loads of free stuff basically, and with the cars and planes to watch there is just so much going on!

[Hulababy]

One more day...

Though the weather forecast isn't good
How muddy does it get if it rains there? Anyone know?

[crookmum]

We haven't been before so no idea how muddy it gets but we are going prepared with wellies and rain macs!

[threeicklepickles]

The festival site has lots of Tarmac paths so I don't think it'll turn into a quagmire. I'm expecting the camping area to get muddy so def go prepared!

[Hulababy]

We have wellies and rain ponchos ready.
Just heading out to buy a cheap doormat for tent.
And def collecting plastic tubs from friend to pack in if it's going to rain

[Hulababy]

How did everyone get on?

[FernieB]

We went but just on Saturday. It was okay but I do feel a bit ripped off. For the price of the ticket I expected a bit more but all we got were stalls that aren't as good as the local farmers market, hugely over priced food stands and a few shows which you can find at a county/town show. The car exhibits were okay but if you're really into that there are bigger and better car shows. The music was okay but acoustics were not great and because the bands started so late in the day we were already quite bored.

TBH it felt as though we'd paid a large sum of money (only 25% goes to children in need) so that some people with fancy cars could have a free track day. It didn't help that Mr Evans came on stage and told the crowd he'd had a great day driving sports cars and going up in helicopters - we all paid for him to do that and we couldn't do anything like that. If you want to see fast cars going round a track it would be better value to buy a track day experience.

If you have small children then there was quite a bit to do and you could probably have a really good day but we had teenagers with us and there was nothing for them really. We arrived at 12:00 and had been round everything including seeing 2 shows by 4:00.

Probably it is better for campers as they can nip back to the tent for a bit. The campsite did look very crowded so I would be interested to hear how the campers got on.

[Hulababy]

That's a shame.

We had a great time all weekend I have to say and actually thought it was good value, especially compared with other concerts and festivals of similar prices.

Food and drink was expensive but I expected that tbh - captive market and all that. Been to other big outdoor concerts and another festival and it was similar coats, though food quality here was very good. Some had long queues though. We don't drink much at this kind of thing so that wasn't too bad and the girls had little water pouches that they kept refilling with water.

My dd was 12y, as was her friend. They enjoyed watching the shows at the show ground, the silent disco, the monster truck, the zorbs and also the free activities such as the rugby area, the mini golf and table tennis, the army assault course, the football golf thing with the cars.

We would have liked to see more of the track cars but were busy a lot and the girls were wanting to be off doing stuff. We saw a bit more on Sunday when we let the girls go off on their own for an hour or so, so we got to sit and watch a while.

But most of time we spent together with the girls and enjoyed watching them have fun.

Most of the late afternoon/evenings we enjoyed the music mainly, finding a spot closer to the front to stand or sit on our ponchos. We all loved scouting for girls; dh really enjoyed simple minds. The girls liked the Lancashire hotpots. TBH though we liked most if the music.

We will definitely be trying to get camping tickets again as even dh loved it - and he was incredibly reluctant beforehand and hasn't been to anything like it before.

Was impressed with the cleanliness of the toilets and showers all weekend both on the campsite and on the festival site. Especially with the rain and mud in places.

Would have liked there to be somewhere to charge mobile phones like other places have. Would have felt happier giving the girls a bit more freedom had we had working phones for contact.

Overall though we loved it.

[Hulababy]

We were in Quiet camping and yes it was full. We had to squeeze in as arrived later in afternoon. Marshals were going round asking people to drop their marquees as they were taking too much room. That's how we found a decent spot near top of hill.

Ground near us stayed mud free and pretty dry. I managed with flip flops going to and from showers. We didn't cook or anything, and didn't spend time at tent after leaving for festival in morning other than to return for end. Apparently there was no shop so I guess if cooking that may be an issue. There was a food and drink stand which wasn't badly prices iirr but had long queues.