saintlydamemrsturnip - camp bestival advice needed please

[silverfrog]

am I right in thinking you went to this last year?

we have booked fo rhtis year, and now it is drawing near, I am half looking forward to it, but mostly terrified.

how busy was it - were you able to walk about fairly freely? if dd1 finds it all a bit much, are we going to be able to wander about with her in quieter areas?

any tips for what to do, or what not to do?

er my tip would be not to go

Ds1 loved it actually, but we crawled home exhausted. Your dd probably isn't as feral as dd1 though.

Are you going to stay in the disabled field? The biggest problem we had there was that many of the stewards weren't that clear about the disabled field and would try and stop us entering it, which would cause ds1 to kick off.

Saturday was very busy but they sold a lot of day tickets and they apparently said last year that they wouldn't do that again. a few pics here

The people on the PS3 bus were lovely. They let ds1 jump the queue each time to go and sit on the top deck (he wasn't interested in playing with a Playstation) and on the last day they gave him a bunch of presents (some PS3 cases and a t-shirt). When it got a bit too much on the Saturday dh took ds1 out for a walk outside the festival. It wasn't great because it was busy but a taxi driver stopped and gave them a tour for free!!! (He takes kids to special school). He wouldn't let dh pay.

There were quite a few quieter areas. Very long queues for the big wheel and cash point (which kept running out of money).

that's how I'm feeling right now (the not going bit!)

we're not staying in the disabled field, but are in the boutique camping bit. dds are nearly 6 and 3. we didn't think we'd manage with a tent, so have booked into these. will be me, dh, 2 dds and also have a helper along for the weekend, so we should have enough people to cope with dd1's need to get away rom it all, should it arise.

you look like you all had a good time - great pics

dd1 has usually been ok at busy days out - doesn't baulk at legoland for eg, as long as we have exit passes, but last month we went to the circus and she flipped. very stressed, not really sure why.

don't think day tickets are available this year, so maybe less of a crush

was the issue with the disabled field the same old non-visible disability chestnut? I think they are working it more on colour coded wristbands this year.

will remember to take cash, thanks for that. will also try to steer away form the big wheel. the main attraction for the dds will, of course, be Mr tumble. I expect we will be spending a LOT of time in his vicinity

No, no problem with invisible disability. Just the colour of the wristband - they didn't recognise it and it was near the backstage stuff so they were jumpy.

DS1 loved mr tumble. He was with dh at the tent when he came on stage and he rushed out, grabbed dh and charged to the stage- then tried to get on it. Sooo excited. It made our weekend (he didn't pay any attention to anyone else on stage!)

think helper will make it ideal tbh - makes a difference. We just didn't have enough adults for the 3 kids. Hence exhaustion.

we had exactly the same reaction wrt Mr T from dd1 at legoland outdoor concert last year. ignored the whole thing - ran up and down and smiled charmingly at anyone with interesting looking food until Justin bounded onto stage.
her head whipped round so fast she must have got whiplash and she came over, sat down, and watched, rapt, for the whole bit.

helper is our prosepective nanny - if she still wants to work for us after that weekend, then we know she'll cope with anything . seriously, though, we just need the extra pair of hands so often, and will do all the more in the future, so we have caved and are getting a nanny. we have found that it is the sheer relentlessness of it that wears us down, so to have another person along, whether ot walk dd1, or sort lunch, or just grab a cup of tea, will be a welcome break. it's the thinking of 500 hundred different permutations that gets to us - again having another person along will take the heat off a bit