Last Updated on 5 September 2023 by Colette
This post features a gifted experience & affiliate links
After our first Camp Bestival Shropshire experience last year, we were all super excited to be returning for a second year, knowing it was likely to be a highlight of our summer. After such an amazing debut festival in 2022, Camp Bestival Shropshire had a lot to live up to this year – not ones to rest on their laurels, the Camp Bestival team had made lots of changes to the festival this year based on feedback from attendees as well as their own experience of using Weston Park last year – some of these were wins (like an earlier finish for headliners on the main stage) and others we weren’t so keen on.
Of course I could just tell you all the bits of Camp Bestival Shropshire 2023 that made it absolutely amazing, but I think it’s really important to tell you the bits we didn’t love too so let’s go in with our Camp Bestival Shropshire highlights and some niggles as well!
Camp Bestival Shropshire 2023 highlights
A pretty painless arrival and set up
We arrived on site at about 11.30am on Thursday morning – considerably earlier than last year but we were concerned that with higher ticket sales that things would be busier and we’d struggled to find a spot to pitch – our fears were completely unfounded, in fact we were parked, through security, tent pitched and eating lunch by 1pm which I’d say was pretty good going!
There were no queues arriving on site, getting parked was painless and whilst the walk to the campsite was a bit of a slog (I managed to burst a blood vessel in my eye pulling the trolley full of stuff so I think I’ll leave that job to Dave and Ben in future!), there were no queues getting through security so we were able to do multiple trips back to the car without too much hassle.
Convenient campsite
As always we pitched as close to the car as possible (top tip for camping at festivals with kids) – I’d much rather a longer walk into the arena than have to carry all our stuff any further than necessary and I prefer to be a bit further away from the action so that we’ve not got people walking past all the time. In this instance that meant we were in the Green campsite. The walk from the Green campsite into the main festival arena wasn’t that bad at all to be honest – I believe for those in caravans this was a different matter!
We were camped on a bit of a slope but once we’d laid the tent out meaning that my feet were going to be down hill when I was sleeping, I was happy enough.
Pitching in Green meant it was a bit of a walk to the showers but nothing we couldn’t manage. We had toilets pretty close to where we had camped (but not so close that we were disturbed by slamming doors or smells!).
All in we were really pleased with the position of the campsite – and, as an added bonus because we had arrived on site fairly early and the Green campsite was still pretty empty, we were able to hold space for our friends to camp right next to us despite the fact that we arrived a couple of hours apart.
A steady Thursday night
A steady Thursday night with blue skies and sunshine set the mood for the weekend perfectly. There were plenty of people around to create an excited buzz but not so much that it felt overly busy. We were able to have a relaxed evening in Caravanseri sat in some random little train carriage catching up with Caro and Richard before spending an hour dancing like loons with big grins on our faces whilst Rob Da Bank manned the decks.
Better weather than we had expected!
Whilst we’re on the subject of blue skies and sunshine, we actually ended up with more of that than we had at first expected. We had been watching the weather forecast fairly obsessively in the run up to the festival and were well prepared with waterproofs, towels and changes of clothes but in the end we only had one wet day with the worst of the rain falling in the morning when we were just able to hid in our tent and avoid it, and then again during Sophie Ellis-Bextor where it rained pretty heavily but we just put our hoods up and danced our way through it!
The festival site got pretty muddy on Friday as a result of this and I was worried it wouldn’t really recover despite the drier weather forecast for the rest of the weekend but thanks to the sun and some quick deliveries of hardcore to the worst affected areas we actually saw very little mud for the rest of the weekend! In fact by Sunday we were enjoying the August sunshine we’ve all been craving!
Plenty of great food choices
In an effort to save some money at Camp Bestival Shropshire this year, we decided to just eat one meal a day in the main festival arena rather than two. We set a £15 budget per person for their meal (this was a limit rather than a target) and then pretty much let the kids choose what they want.
I would say my most disappointing meal was the burritos Dave and I had on the first night – they were just bland and lacking much in the way of anything but rice. My favourite meal was loaded fries – but I’m definitely in my loaded fries era right now anyway! Ben loved the burgers so much he had them twice, he was less impressed at queuing for an hour for chicken on Sunday night – I don’t know what had gone on with that particular stall but once Ben and Chloe were in the queue they were too invested to leave – I’d have walked away long before that. The worst of it was, he said the burger wasn’t even worth it.
Being able to take your own food and drink into the festival
Being able to take your own food and drink into the festival arena was a bit of a revelation for us at Camp Bestival Shropshire last year – and something we took full advantage of this summer.
We used small cool bags that fit easily in our backpacks – each bag fit around three cans of lager or pop in at a time plus frozen capri sun (to keep them cool and for the kids to drink!) and Dave just went back to the tent for supplies as necessary. This meant we bought very little in the way of festival beers or drinks in general but did spend a fortune on food each night!
Read more about the best food to take to a festival.
Non-alcoholic cocktails
Whilst we didn’t spend much on festival pints, I did enjoy a non-alcoholic cocktail or too! I’m not much of a drinker at the best of times and definitely not at festivals – partly because the idea of waking up in a tent with a hangover fills me with dread and also just because I’ve always really struggled to justify the cost. However, there’s only so much Caffeine Free Diet Coke a girl can drink over a weekend so I was really interested in the Clean Co non alcoholic cocktails on offer. The Paloma (with Tequila substitute) was an absolute joy and I treated myself to one a day (Chloe loved them too though we only bought her one as at £6.50 a drink it’s a bit spendy when she could be drinking the Capri suns or cans of pop in our bag)
As well as the Clean Co stand, there were other no-alcohol and CBD drinks available at some of the bars – I didn’t try these but I know Lauren had an alcohol free gin and CBD tonic. We were both pleased to see options for non-drinkers beyond the usual fizzy pop we are stuck with!
Hot Dub Time Machine
I hadn’t heard of Hot Dub Time Machine before Camp Bestival but Tom was an absolute festival highlight for us – basically the concept is that he takes you back in time to the back end of the 70s and plays a track (or part of a track) from pretty much each year through to the present day. It’s fast paced and a whole lot of fun. Your opportunities to catch Hot Dub Time Machine in the UK are relatively limited as he lives in Australia but if you get the chance, definitely check him out.
Utah Saints
We missed the beginning of Utah Saints as they clashed with Sophie Ellis-Bextor (who Amy was super keen to see again after really enjoying her set at Y Not Festival the month before) but they were bloody brilliant. I could have listened (and danced) to them all night given half the chance – the 30 minutes or so that we managed absolutely weren’t enough and I was gutted that we didn’t get to see the full set but we were keen to make sure that we didn’t miss any of Altern8 who were on elsewhere on the site immediately after. I know Ade and Mark saw pretty much the whole set and said it was brilliant.
Altern8
When I saw Altern8 were on the line up, I knew there was no way Dave as going to be missing that. I had fully expected them to be on really late and was all set to be taking the kids to bed and leaving him to it but as it was they were on at half 9 on Friday night – clashing with Rudimental (who we weren’t that bothered about) and Rhythm of the 90s (who I believe were absolutely brilliant). At this point we’d lost the girls – when I say lost, they were with our friends but we had no idea where they were – so we took Ben to watch Altern8 and had a brilliant hour dancing like we were absolutely not 43 with a dodgy back. I can’t say Ben loved Altern8 but he bobbed about a bit and was definitely happy people watching so we had a really good laugh.
Paul the security dude at Bollywood
Now at this point I need to mention Paul the security guy at Bollywood – Ben and I first noticed him during the Altern8 set on Friday night, he was having the best time dancing to Altern8 and clearly loving life. Every time we spotted him across the weekend, in the same position at Bollywood, he was just so happy – chatting to festival goers, dancing and just generally embodying the Camp Bestival Vibe – Rob Da Bank, give that man a pay rise.
Pretty clean toilets overall
I know talking about the toilets might seem a bit odd when it comes to listing festival highlights but believe me, clean, useable toilets are something to get excited about – especially if you’ve experienced the likes of this year’s Y Not Festival.
The toilets at Camp Bestival Shropshire are a mixture of composting toilets in the campsite and chemical toilets in the main festival arena. The composting ones in the campsite are basically wooden shacks with steps and a toilet seat over a wheelie bin – you don’t flush them or anything, just chuck a cupfull of sawdust over your busisness. They were kept relatively clean over the course of the weekend but in general, they are grim and I hate them. The chemical toilets within the festival were usually surprisingly clean – I think there was only once I went to use them and found there was no toilet roll. What I would say though is that composting or chemical, if you happen to be on your period at Camp Bestival, there’s absolutely stuff all facilities and it’s quite hard to manage!
Slow starts and not feeling any kind of rush to get anywhere
I think it can be really easy to overwhelm yourself at a festival with the need to do and try everything – to make sure you’ve had the full festival experience and “got your money’s worth” from your ticket price. This year, there were lots of gaps for us on the line up – times where there just wasn’t anything we were that bothered about seeing – which meant we were able to have quite slow starts to the day and just take things at our own pace.
There were lots of activities that needed booking (and usually paying extra for) from wellness activirs for the grown ups to tree climbing or craft activities – we just didn’t bother. The idea of having to get up early to book on to things just held no appeal and I certainly didn’t want to pay a load of money for a wellness treat that I’d rather do outside of the festival.
Our festival experience was very much Park Stage / Big Top / Bollywood focussed with a few random discoveries along the way (which of course is the joy of a festival like Camp Bestival).
Relatively well priced rides
For the most part, rides at Camp Bestival Shropshire were about £3 a pop which didn’t seem too excessive (though of course soon adds up when you’ve got three kids to pay for). We gave the kids a ride budget of £20 each for the weekend. Ben didn’t touch his, choosing not to go on any rides at all whereas the girls pretty much spent theirs. Giving them a budget meant they could pick and choose which rides to go on and when but that when they’d used up all their money it was gone. This worked well for us as last year we just seemed to be constantly spending money on rides or at the Big Feastival last year, when the rides were at least £6 each, we just said no all weekend. I’d definitely look at giving them a fixed budget again.
Gorgeous decorations and attention to detail
As last year, the whole of the Camp Bestival Shropshire site was beautifully decorated – with plenty of brightly coloured flags, sequins and random photo opportunities – though we missed the Tuk Tuks from last year. The layout had changed considerably from last year and we all commented it made it feel a bit more carnival than festival which we didn’t love but you can’t knock the Camp Bestival team when it comes to making a festival look pretty!
The Wall of Death
The Wall of Death was one of those random shows that I could have easily missed – it just wasn’t on my radar but the others decided to queue up for it so I went along with them. The Wall of Death was equal parts terrifying, exciting and impressive with three riders performing incredible stunts on a variety of very noisy motorbikes up vertical walls! If you’ve got little ones sensitive to noise, I definitely recommend ear defenders for this one! I was glad the performance was quite short as the noise and strong smell of petrol was giving me quite a headache by the end!
Roller skating in Bollywood
Last year Bollywood was one of my favourite areas of the festival and I was worried that combining it with a roller disco was going to completely ruin it – but actually it was pretty cool. The roller disco was only available till around lunch time on Friday and then late afternoon on Saturday and then Bollywood was turned back into its usual space with the added bonus of a proper dance floor.
The roller disco at Bollywood seemed to be really well organised. It was totally free to skate and sessions lasted around 20 minutes (from memory) – Ade and Mark took the girls skating first thing on Friday morning and said they only had to wait for one session ahead of them before they got to go on. Of course later in the day, the queues were longer.
Dick & Dom
We saw Dick & Dom do their DJ battle at The Big Feastival last summer and I’d put money on the set being almost identical at Camp Bestival Shropshire this year but we couldn’t have cared less. The kids loved their daft antics on stage, we all loved their tune choices and the whole thing was a right laugh.
What was a real surprise to us though was Dick & Dom’s Big Rave on the Saturday night – what an unexpected joy that was! Amy, with a belly full of candy floss, slept through it in a camping chair just outside the tent whilst Dave, Chloe and I danced our hearts out – Chloe was absolutely feeling the tunes and didn’t want it to end. Watching her dancing and singing without a care in the world was easily one of my favourite bits of the whole festival! She even asked me when I could take her raving again.
The Cuban Brothers
It wouldn’t be Camp Bestival without the Cuban Brothers – every time we see them they have us in stitches. With their cheeky humour, break dancing and crazy outfits (or lack thereof) they’re great fun!
Friends!
Something we’ve learned over the years is that being at a festival with friends takes it to another level – be that friends you’ve intentionally booked to go to the festival with or people you’ve bumped into while you’re there. Ben said he definitely preferred Camp Bestival over Y Not just because of having other people to hang out with and bounce off. At a family festival, having a few of you means you can share the kids a bit depending on who wants to watch what, you can give each other a break and you just really appreciate having someone else to share the experience with.
An easy escape
Having packed up first thing on Sunday morning (which we always do at a festival), we left at 8pm ish after Goldie Looking Chain had finished their (very short) set. We weren’t fussed about the headline acts on the Sunday night and there were no fireworks to hang around for so we decided to take an early dart and get home for a more reasonable time.
We jumped in the car and drove off site with no issues whatsoever, no queues to get out, no traffic on the roads and were home by about 10pm (including a stop at services to wash my hands with hot running water and soap – it never ceases to amaze me what a luxury that is after a weekend at a festival!)
Camp Bestival Shropshire 2023 niggles
We didn’t love the changes to the Caravanserai layout
Caravanserai was one of our favourite bits of the first Camp Bestival Shropshire and we were so excited to get back and spend some time there this year. We were gutted to find that the layout of Caravanserai had completely changed and had been opened right up. I totally get that this was probably to allow more people to enjoy it but it really took away the magic of stepping through the doors into this cosy, quirky little festival within a festival – it just felt like a bit of a sideshow rather than the special space it had been last year. I know we weren’t the only people who were disappointed by this so hopefully the team will be able to make changes to recreate some of that Caravanserai magic next year
The Camp Bestival Shropshire app was really rubbish
So the introduction of a Camp Bestival app had it’s benefits – downloading the app meant we didn’t need to spend money on lanyards (though I kinda missed having one for souvenir purposes) and could, in theory, easily check who was on when however I found the set up of the app really annoying, you seemed to just be constantly scrolling in different directions and it was really hard to compare what was going on on different stages. I think as a result I missed an awful lot of stuff that was going on outside of the three main areas (The Park Stage, The Big Top and Bollywood). It would have been really useful if, like the Y Not app, you could choose your favourites and have them added to your calendar or be sent notifications of when things you’d marked were starting. A clash finder would also have been useful. Basically – The Y Not app was far far more user friendly than the Camp Bestival one – there’s work to be done on that.
We missed being able to use cash
This year, the whole Camp Bestival Shropshire site was cashless. And, whilst I realise this is essentially the way the world is going, we didn’t love it. Of course the event being cashless is easier in lots of ways but we did find it makes it harder to give the kids a spending budget and I guess to be able to keep control of your own!
I know there had been some issues with people being double charged by vendors last year so Dave and I were keen to keep a close eye on our spending – paying by phone and using Google Pay should help with this as you get an instant notification (assuming you had network coverage – which we didn’t).
As an aside, the fact that the event was cashless meant that when the team at the Wall of Death asked for tips, nobody really had any money on them – we felt they should have had a card machine on exit which allowed us to tip for their performance.
Phone reception was really poor
Depending on what network you were on, phone reception was either brilliant or really poor. I don’t suppose this is much of a surprise – phone recpetion has always been an issue at festivals when there are so mnay people in one place but you’d think by 2023 we’d be on top of this.
Dave and I struggled with connectivity last year but we’d changed service providers in the meantime so thought it would be ok – it was not. Our friends were using the What3Words app to find each other but Dave and I had next to no reception – in fact the only times I was able to get online tended to be at about midnight back at the tent – which wasn’t ideal for sharing stuff to instagram etc!
The main stage shanty town
Don’t get me wrong, a festival trolley absolutely has its place and I totally understand why people use them – but weaving your way through picnic blankets, camping chairs and festival trollies marking out people’s “territory” around the main stage really does my head in. For much of the weekend we found that it looked like the main stage was really busy when actually, once you’d got past all of the chairs and trollies, there was plenty of space to dance.
The crowd didn’t seem to be quite so family focused as last year
Don’t get me wrong – Camp Bestival Shropshire is absolutely a family festival but we did feel that the crowd didn’t seem to be quite so family orientated this year. We saw one guy who was completely off his head watching Altern8, some groups of teens who didn’t seem to be accompanied and a strong smell of weed on occasion.
A lack of visible security
It felt like, despite it being a much bigger crowd this year, there were less visible security. Essentially once you are through the initial bag checks and security coming onto site, nobody really checks you again – there was nobody checking your wristbands coming in and out of the festival site itself or on the campsites. In some ways I like this as it feels trusting, like we’re all there for the right reasons and they know we’re not going to spoil it – but it felt in stark contrast to Y Not Festival the month before where we were constantly being searched and checked.
There was a police presence on site – but they were all really friendly and happy to pose for photos with kids so it didn’t feel intimidating.
It’s important to say that Camp Bestival Shropshire is still in its infancy and needs to be given time to iron out niggles and settle into the site of Weston Park – we know from the ongoing success of Camp Bestival Lulworth (which turned 15 this year) that these guys absolutely know what they are doing and that they took on board feedback from last year to make changes to this year’s event – with that in mind, the few niggles we experienced at this year’s festival absolutely wouldn’t stop us going back next year!
So Camp Bestival, if you’re listening, get Caravanserai closed up again, have another play with the arena layout to make it feel more festival and less carnival, bring back Dick & Dom’s Big Rave and book a more dancey line up again please!
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