Big Apple Hot Dogs was trading at The Big Feastival 2015 and the Babe Papa had invited the whole brood along for a weekend of camping, food and fun.
The Big Feastival is the baby of Jamie Oliver and Alex James of Blur (it happens on Alex James’ farm) and features food and craft stalls, foodie masterclasses, kids areas, fairground attractions and fairly big acts like Dizzee Rascal, Ella Eyre, Groove Armada and Grandmaster Flash.
Fun DMC hosted a ‘daytime block party for kids and grownups’ on the DJ stage next to the BAHD stand. I’d been meaning to check out a Fun DMC hip hop session (they host parties in east London) and we enjoyed busting out old school moves.
Check Lewis, age 9, strutting his stuff.
Due to some admin error, we found ourselves without camping passes. Luckily, some new mates of Abiye’s invited us to camp in the lush gardens of their simply stunning house, a short drive from the festival.
I was pinching myself when I learned that we would be sleeping not in our 6 man tent but in the family’s luxurious guest house, complete with hot showers and kitchen. This was a massive step up from my glamping fantasies and gave us a proper weekend break. Huge THANK YOU to the Dodders crew for their amazing hospitality!
The Cotswolds is blessed with truly breathtaking scenery that had me humming lines from ‘Jerusalem’ as we drove about. On the first evening, we stole away for a delicious dinner (great service, perfect steak) at The Slaughters Country Inn, in the intriguingly named Lower Slaughter.
We made it back to the festival to catch Dizzee Rascal effing and blinding through his set. I’d already warned the kids there might be ‘language’, but nobody got too hot and bothered about it as Dizzee puts on a great show. Leaping around with the boys to ‘Bonkers’, wearing light-refracting glasses, was a festival highlight.
Sunday was a bit of a wash out, although things cheered up later in the day and we had a little wander about. Stuffed on hotdogs, we also tucked into Dorshi dim sum, The Bowler meatballs and I had my first ever Gin and Tonic vanilla ice cream from artisan spirit makers Sipsmith (tastes like it says on the tub). Lush.
We weren’t fans of closing act Paloma Faith, but our festival came to a fab finale dancing in Alex James’ Cheese Hub tent. The man himself was having a whale of a time on the turntables.
The Big Feastival is a great family festival — not quite as magical as Camp Bestival or Just So Festival, but everyone was super friendly and it had a relaxed and child-safe vibe. BAHD hot dogs went down a treat with the punters. And the big hit with the babes was Sam Sam Bubble Man, whose giant wands kept them bubble happy all weekend long.
Find out about next year’s Feastival at http://www.jamieoliver.com/thebigfeastival
This looks fabulous! I don’t mind camping ( for a weekend), but can imagine how pleased you were to find out you were staying at a guest house! So lovely to see you all smiling xxx
It was lots of fun, I’m definitely a festival and camping convert but boy was it delicious to wake up in a cosy warm bed and have a hot shower every day (one that’s not grassy on the floor lol)! We should do a festival together sometime, the kids would love it x