It's the time of year to talk Bell Tents...

[lowenergylightbulb]

I want either a bell tent, or some other canvas type frame tent. Pref 5/6 berth...

I seem to remember some people last summer buying direct from holland?

I've looked at the soulpad site - is that the 'cheapest' I'm likely to get a lovely bell tent for?

I really, really, really want one

for 3 a 4m would e OK, but for a family of 2 + 2 kids - 11 and 9, plus a dog 5m is better

I am thinking re teh inner, but we used our tent twice already, and yes it was cold, but plenty of balnkets and clothes meant it was OK

Thanks Crunchie. I think we'll go for the 4m without inner then. I've read up so much already trying to decide on size, but in the end, I think hearing from people that have actually camped in them makes the most sense.

We're just 2 adults and a 5 year old and I'm glad we went for the 5m. Dh is 6ft odd so he's happy he can move about easily in it.

Paisley, do you ever have problems with pitch sizes?

these tents are lovely! We're into backcountry camping so these are far too heavy for us so we've a low-ish weight base camp one but I love the idea of sleeping under canvas. I haven't done that since I was a kid! As for waterproofing, we had one for 20+ years when I was growing up and we never waterproofed it. I do remember my father yelling "don't touch the ceiling" when it was raining hard because then the tent would leak...

Does the inner really make a big difference RE the cold?

Abdnhiker, I remember my dad saying the same He made his own canvas tent and we once camped in Ireland on a hill so that he could see the Blasket Islands when we woke, only we woke in the night in the middle of a storm with my dad directing everyone to a side of teh tent (including the dog) to hold it down!

Sal, no we've not had any problems with pitch sizes. But so far we've only done campsites (people have those trailer tents with footprints of about 10m - ours didn't seem so big).
But festivals may be tighter for space.

DuelingFanjo - what day are you going to be onsite at glasto - you'll need a big flat pitch for the bell tent - any ideas?

[disclaimer - we have opted out and are tangerine fieldsing it - sad old person emoticon]

We're going on the Wednesday Omnishambles. Nice and early hopefully, though bit worried about how many people might be getting there the night before!

We looked at the Tangerine field and even thought about getting a tipi but settled for the Belltent, just hope that we manage to get a pitch. Possibly bottom of pennards of the bit which levels out at the top or maybe the field by the park stage.

Can't wait.

I know - me too - nearer the time we'll have to do a thread...

The worry about turning up early is what led us to tangerine so we didnt have to worry about it - got to coordinate dropping the dcs off at various gps and work stuff etc...