Another year another Shambala Festival! For a medium sized festival, we all agree this one is hard to beat. It remains our family’s favourite festival, because it has so many different activities and exciting performances and artwork everywhere, that every year there’s something new to experience. They also listen to feedback from festival goers, meaning that each year they make changes to try to improve the event, which shows how much they value their supporters, who keep coming back year after year. This was our fourth Shambala, and definitely not our last!
The best thing this year was that they’d fixed the problem with their entry system (which had caused up to 2 hours’ wait to get in last year) so this year there was no queue at all! This meant that on Thursday we got in and found a great camping spot and were set up very quickly.
Family Camping
There are two types of family camping; for under fives which is further away from the main festival, and for families with older children closer to the entertainment. I think this works very well as you then meet people with similar aged children. There is also the wonderful family yurt (with its own campfire) in the young families campsite – a safe place for small children play, toast marshmallows, listen to songs or storytime, or just hide from the rain (a necessity this year!). The family camping seemed particularly spacious this year, meaning there was space for large family tents plus gazeebos and shelters.
The Woodland Tribe
The Kids’ Field
The Crèche
I cannot praise the staff at the crèche enough for what they have provided. It’s a safe, quiet and yet stimulating place with plenty of activities, where you can leave your children for three hours so that you can experience parts of the festival you couldn’t take them. My children go every year and they love being there, and we get a chance to go to the hot tubs, go and see a band, join in with the mad bearded kitten antics or just go and eat dinner together.
Overnight Bush Camp
My eldest daughter was finally old enough to attend the overnight bush camp this year. This is an adventure for children ages 8-12, at an additional cost. We packed her a sleeping bag, sleep mat, a bowl, spoon and cup and a change of clothes, and dropped her off at 4pm. Then they disappeared into the woods to be returned to us at 10am the next morning! It was an amazing experience for her, and gave the parents a night off to enjoy by themselves so everyone was happy.
As the parents were not allowed to join in, I asked my daughter to write a review – so welcome to Festival Kidz’ newest team member! You will see her review here soon.
The Entertainment
As my children are getting older we were looking for entertainment outside the kids’ field, and for us the puppet shows at Smoking Puppet Theatre were a massive hit. We saw a few of the shows; they were funny and engaging – just make sure you turn up early as this year the tent filled up and they had to turn people away.
The Food
Green Initiatives
Shambala is leading the way with green initiatives – they use 100% sustainable energy, they have pedal powered phone charging stations, a recycling deposit, a deposit on all plastic cups from the bar, a ban on all plastic water bottles and carts giving out free water refills throughout the site. If, like me, this sort of thing is important to you, there is more information on the Shambala website here – their genuine concern about their environmental impact is impressive.
The Crowds
Although we absolutely love this festival, there was a general feeling that it is getting too crowded. It was obvious the organisers had sold considerably more tickets this year. The venues were busy and it was necessary to get to things early before they filled up, which is hard for families as we tend to need to just drop into things. This meant we saw less, we queued more for things like food and toilets, and it made the festival that bit more difficult, especially for us with three children. Activities such as the Fox Hunt and the cargo nets in the woods even needed to be booked the day before. The ‘Waiting Room’ venue which had been a highlight the last few years had also disappeared which was a shame (although this wasn’t a family friendly venue anyway) and we hope it reappears next year.
The evenings also felt a lot more ‘wild’ with many more young people out partying, so if you’re looking for somewhere quiet this is not the place for you!
Having said that – Shambala is still one of the best festivals in the UK – it’s incredibly difficult to find anything else to match its variety of entertainment, facilities for families and sense of fun.