Big Feastival- festival camping tips

[goodtoesnaughtytoes]

We are going to the Big Feastival in the Cotswolds in August.

Never done festival comping before, any tips?

Any been to this specific festival? We are arriving in the Thursday evening. Tips on best field to camp in, what to take.

It says there is a 'cooking area'. What is this exactly?

Thanks

We’ve camped at many festivals and never been told where we can and can’t cook (with the exception of no BBQ’s allowed, which is completely understandable around tents). We very nearly didn’t pack our cooking stove as we read on the Big Feastival website that cooking was only allowed in the campsite designated cooking areas (to minimise fire risk). As soon as we got there we saw people cooking outside of their tents so it wasn’t a rule that was strictly imposed. As we could only see one cooking area per camping field it would’ve been quite inconvenient to have to keep walking back and forth with cooking gear. To be honest the ground was very wet during the wkd so there was a low fire risk so we did cook by our tent on a couple of occasions.
The car parks are a fair walk from the camp sites plus of course you maybe walking around for a while trying to find a pitch big enough for your tent. We bought a trolley and it’s brilliant. Alternatively, you can hire a trolley from a stand in the car park. Obviously if you plan to go to future festivals it’s worth investing in your own.
You want to be away from the toilets and showers so that you can’t hear the constant banging of the doors, but not too far away for midnight toilet dashes.
There are two main camping areas and each one is fenced off with security checking wristbands 24/7. This sounds a bit intense but it was nice knowing that the campsite was quite secure and only people camping could access the area.
There were separate male and female portaloos which were the cleanest I’ve ever seen ever (although i’d still pack loo roll in case they run out). I’d also recommend getting up early if you do want to use the showers as by 7:30am the queue started getting very long and was still long by midday!
It’s worth packing flip flops so you can keep your shoes on in the shower and pack a shower cap too if you want to avoid your hair getting wet as the hose is in a fixed position.
From the campsite to the main arena was 5-10 minutes away. There was a really nice woodland walk area which took you around the edge of the main path. This was good when trying to walk back to the camp with the rest of the crowd as it was a quieter detour and the wooden bark meant we weren’t walking through the mud!
The M&S shop is brilliant - although it’s a little more expensive than your typical M&S, it saved us about half the price of buying lunch from one of the stands in the main festival arena.
Many of the stalls and sponsors give out free food and drink samples. One year Dorset Cereal were one of the sponsors and had a marquee in the camping area which was a great place to head to for a free tasty breakfast.

Haven't been since covid, but it was a regular for us for a few years.

We always tried to get pitched in one of the fields to the right, as you got through the entrance. Usually the one adjacent to the pre pitched area. We just found that to be not too near to be noisy, but not a long trek back at night.

I don't think we ever actually cooked, but we definitely took a camping stove for morning coffees etc, and it was never an issue.

I hope you have a great time, I have lots of lovely memories from the BF over the years.

As pp said, there was usually tonnes of freebies on offer, (yes loved the Dorset Cereal area!) and spent an extremely hot afternoon getting pleasantly sozzled on free cocktails whilst on a beanbag in the Philippines Tourist Board section one year!

Thanks, that's really helpful