Just So Festival Review 2019 (Guests to review).

We love Just So Festival and my 9 and 10 year old boys were delighted when we were asked back again this year to review. We are big supporters of the team behind Just So, Wild Rumpus, who bring together nature and the arts to give families unique experiences they'll remember forever.

Just So Festival's 10th Anniversary took place in the usual Cheshire woodland location of Rode Hall and created a real festival to remember forever, and one for your CV if you work in events management!!

I've been to many, many festivals over the years and for the last 25 I've had children with me. It's really easy for it all to go wrong when the rain hits, and it hit Just So really hard. One month's rain in one day, as 5000 people arrive and attempt to start their festival weekend. It's the stuff of nightmares for any event organiser. They did fantastically.

The staff and volunteers gave everyone just enough leeway, and the festival attendees had enough common sense, to make it work safely for as many people as possible. I'm truly sorry to anyone who didn't make it in the end. For most of us at least, the festival went ahead virtually as planned.

It was a festival of the arts and the outdoors, and nature was determined to reassert the fact she is bigger than all of us.

Timber Family Friendly Derbyshire Woodland Festival Review 2019 (Review Visit)

We were very honoured to be invited back to Timber Festival for a second time to review this year and it was even better than the last one. A very laid back festival which intertwines arts and nature, and takes place in the woodland in Derbyshire. It's a place I really feel at home...

Timber Festival 2019 took place on Friday 5th to Sunday 7th July at Feanedock, near Ashby de la Zouch in the National Forest and it was, to put it bluntly, epic*.

*Except for the bit where I drank 'not enough water', bumped into Stuart Maconie and told him who he was, that I hadn't caught him on stage this year and that he'd just done the Jarrow March - clearly he already knew most of that, so I'll just pretend that never happened...

Photo heavy - click on an image to enlarge it...

We arrived around 6pm, set up camp, collected our wristbands and went into the festival. There's plenty going on, even after 8pm on the Friday. The sunset was amazing, as was the view from the top of the big hill - all across the site and over to where they are still quarrying. You relax immediately...

Ad | Timber!!!!!!! Festival - Derbyshire Family Festival Review

Timber is a new festival that instantly sounded right up our street, and excitingly we were invited to review by Wild Rumpus. Set in Derbyshire (in gorgeous woodland in the National Forest) and aiming to be a carbon neutral big sibling to Just So Festival, with plenty to entertain the adults as well as the school aged children. It was brilliant. Everything that we hoped for and more, plus sunshine for once!!!

This is a photo-heavy post because there really was so much to experience at Timber Festival - it was great before we even left the camping field (aside from losing our van keys for 4 hours, but that's another story). Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Our festival began with sunshine, wildlife, cherries, lovely neighbours and a gift of roast chicken... and a space in accessible camping because neither I nor my partner are capable of transporting our tent and belongings. We are working on the boys and they did a superb job of helping to get the tent up and down! Modern tents are really easy to use and can be excellent prices, try somewhere like Globo Surf for advice if you are new to camping.

12000mAh Slim Power Bank Review for Varta

The Varta Slim Power bank promises up to 5 full phone charges or 2 tablet charges before it needs to be recharged itself. Smaller than a paperback book, and safely encased with a metal cover, it is ideal to take away with you and likely to be invaluable to us this Summer.

Everyone has a cupboard somewhere full of very exciting electrical gadgets. Sometimes this is a drawer, sometimes it is called a garage or a shed. Your gadgets (including your vehicle) will all need power and this is where Varta come in. They have been making batteries for over 100 years and more recently have increased the range, now making chargers, torches and other consumer products.

Canvas Holidays - Luxury Camping In Berny Riviere Northern France

At BlogOn Conference in 2016 I was ridiculously lucky and won a break with Canvas Holidays. Because we had a teenager in hospital we didn't feel able to take it until last Summer - but it was really worth the wait!

Canvas Holidays have accommodation at over 200 campsites all over Europe, and we chose to stay fairly close to home in Northern France at Camping La Croix Du Vieux Pont at Berny Riviere near Paris. Canvas have got a variety of different lodges and pre-erected tents on site. We decided to go for a longer break and our £1000 budget covered us for an 8 night stay in a 2 bedroom Maxi Tent including return ferry from Dover to Calais.

We are used to tents, and our Maxi Tent was luxury. It was really cleverly designed so that you can have a gate across the kitchen section and the two bedrooms are on opposite sides of the tent, and both very big. The boys slept on 2 single metal camp beds and we had a double, and it was almost as comfortable as our beds at home.