Wilderness Festival - Glitter, feathers and 'seeing double' with TOMS.

Last month we ventured into the Oxfordshire countryside, pitched our tent and enjoyed four fun filled days at Wilderness Festival. To be honest, it seems likes ages ago now and I uploaded most of these photos half way during the school holidays, but then Summer fun got in the way! So as the nights draw in and we light the fire for the first evening of the season, I thought I'd indulge in a bit of reminiscing.

We'd never been to a festival so had no idea what to expect but knew it was family friendly and that we were in for a great line up on the music front. There were so many families and everyone, young and old, embraced the carefree spirit that the festival had to offer. Never have I seen so many feathered head dresses in one place.

We obviously spent a great deal of our time in front of the main stage, enjoying music we'd been singing along to in the car for weeks before, as well as artists who were completely new to us. However there was so much else on offer too, from talks, lectures, cookery demonstrations, fitness and yoga classes, poetry readings, nature walks, a communal choir and sock wrestling contests (a favourite obvs!)  The line up was extensive! Of course we couldn't do everything but you'll see a few of our highlights below, along with one or two outfit changes along the way.

It goes without saying that I was more than just a bit excited that Neal's Yard Remedies were the official skincare partner with Wilderness. My sister was kind enough to treat me to a facial for my birthday so I enjoyed THE most relaxing hour to kick the weekend off on the Friday morning. It was utter BLISS.

I told you there were feathers!!

The line up of activities for children was brilliant, they enjoyed a great puppet based theatre show one morning and loads of fun laid on by The Flying Seagull Project. This group ran circus skills workshops, got us all involved in traditional playground games and had an army of kids captivated with pirate tales and drama! They're a really inspiring charity who use the festival season to fund their work throughout the rest of the year, bringing theatre, music, performance and smiles to the faces of children in the hardest of places. Their story gave me goosebumps so I'd definitely recommend taking a look at what they do if you haven't heard of them.

Before we left for the festival we discovered that there was a 'theme' for each of the days, which of course we embraced without need for encouragement! Friday's theme was 'seeing double', an ideal opportunity for full on family twinning! I can't tell you how much fun I had picking out these TOMS to wear. They were so comfortable, making them the perfect dancing shoes and the fact that TOMS help a person in need for every pair was an even greater reason to enjoy wearing them. I'll admit that the weather wasn't kind to us all weekend so we had to dodge the mud to keep them ship shape and took spare shoes so the kids didn't wreck their shark and pandas prints on day one! I'm pleased to say that they all survived the mud though and mine are now serving me very well back on the school run (obviously nowhere near as fun as these laid back halcyon days!)

Saturday's theme was 'glitter ball' and there wasn't a person in sight who didn't adorn themselves with at least a few sequins. I visited the lovely girls at the 'It's In Your Dreams' stand who sorted me out with some face glitter which I LOVED! Having left two pots that I ordered from them at home, I was glad to not go without. As you can see my Mum went all out with diamonte stickers. Oh and look! More feathers!

Alright alright, I'll admit I did go all fan girl on the Scummy Mummies at their book signing. They gave a brilliant performance which was recorded as part of a live podcast and, of course, the jump suits were bang on theme aswell.

We went with my parents (who very generously treated us to the tickets), my sister and her fiance and their baby bump (I KNOW, camping in the second trimester and without a whiff of complaint - my sister absolutely rocks!) We all thoroughly enjoyed and have decided we'll be booking to go again. Although next time we'll certainly be raising our game on the trolley decoration front and joining the seasoned festival go-ers with their fairy lights and tassled canopies.

At some point, before my memory of the Summer months is over shadowed with thoughts of icy mornings and festivities, I'm planning on writing a post with details of all the camping essentials we found useful over the Summer. I had some great tips given to me before we went to Wilderness, so would love to share the love for anyone planning a festival next Summer.

Did you go to a festival? What were your family 'essentials'? Do Iet me know below and I'll share my top picks in my post.

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I'd like to say a huge thank you to TOMS for kindly gifting us the shoes you can see in this post. As always, the words and opinions expressed above are my own and I'm forever grateful for your support of this blog.