Hello FairyLand Trust followers!

Here is an update on the Camp Bestival weekend, Fridays blog post is by fairy Clare, and Danny the elf has written a retrospective post of his whole experience at CB!


Friday 2nd August

We were woken to the hypnotic sound of rain on canvas this morning, once again the world outside shrouded in mist. As on our first day here, the veil teasingly lifted, gradually revealing our beautiful surroundings and THE SUN.

It has been a wonderful day for the Fairyland Trust. All our Fairy Crown workshops were fully booked, the dapper Danny and Pete recruited some lovely supporters and the magical Dingly Dell now proudly hosts some amazingly imaginative and intricate Fairy Houses. Some beetles had already moved into one.

Kelly preparing string for general tying and fixing, or for washing lines. Even fairies have laundry!

Clare foraging for building materials.

 

Some of the lovely Fairy Houses

 



Spiderman modelling a lovely Fairy Crown

2 of our crew studying ‘The Natural History of the Unicorn’.

 

Paige briefing Luke in the art of Crown Making

It is a good feeling to know we have spread a little nature magic today. Seeing children and adults foraging amongst the twigs and earth looking for suitable materials to make fairy beds, doorways, crockery or chimney pots is a very lovely thing. As is watching 25 children listen in silent rapture to our Crown Maker show them how to make a harebell out of tissue paper.

This Fairyland Blogger will leave you with the image of a contented crew member strolling back to the camp at about 11pm, having seen Billy Bragg earlier on the Castle Stage (a glorious reminder of festivals gone by), and two children walking past with worn out parents, chanting "No sleep for us! No sleep for us!".

This really is a festival for the small people!

My experience of Camp Bestival 2013....   Danny

Wednesday

The Berlingo limped into the grounds of Lulworth Castle having come to the boil around 20 miles short of the site. After registration we located the rest of the crew and pitched the tent before having a bite to eat and a few drinks.

Thursday

After a brief gathering of the crew in the morning those without children headed onto the main site to put the finishing touches to the Workshop and check out Dingly Dell, The Fairy Houses  location.

A big thumbs-up to the rest of the crew who had obviously been hard at work on Wednesday whilst I was nervously poking the radiator cap on the Berlingo, wishing I knew about cars.

Kendra and myself took a wander through a military firing range with the children in a bid to locate a beach. We saw a pair of Buzzards and Freddie managed to find some ammunition rounds which I persuaded him to place (gently) back where he found them. The beach looked lovely but was sadly out of bounds due to unexploded shells and non-specific military stuff. The view was breathtaking however.

In the evening we all went onto the site and gathered foliage and treasures for Fridays activities.

Friday

I headed down onto site with two very excited children at 10am in the morning. With a bag full of snacks and sun-cream we roamed the festival. Freddie met up with his friend and they done a Comic book animation workshop whilst Rosie got her face painted.

After the kids had a go on the carousel it was time to report for my first shift as Booking-in fairy for the Fairy Crowns Workshop. My initial nerves soon tailed away. People seem genuinely interested in what the Fairyland Trust are doing and the children are enchanted by the workshops.

In the evening the family went down and watched Billy Bragg. I took a makeshift Trolley to transport Rosie and we went for drinks with friends at the furthest end of the Festival site before the long trek back to the crew site.

 Saturday

Saturday morning saw me heading back to drop Freddie at another animation workshop. Rosie got another face painting session in and we watched Mr Tumble doing some old school nose- parping and custard pie antics.

  I reported for my shift on Fairy Houses. Again this was my first experience of doing this. The wooded area was directly next to the main stage but seemed to have a calming effect on the crowds that entered. It was lovely to see families taking time out from the madness of a festival to build the houses together. It was great to see the imagination and energy of the children being reciprocated by the parents, especially the ones that had looked at me like I was a bit mad when I explained what we were up to.

We saw the Levellers on Saturday night. I watched them on the forecourt of the Castle. I’ve been meaning to see the Levellers since I was a teenager so this was great.

 

Sunday

The crew got together early to wish Ben a Happy 18^th Birthday and we all had slice of fantastic birthday cake which had been commissioned from the crew caterers.

 I clocked on for the early shift as a Booking-in Fairy for “Fairy Books”. It struck me that over the three days I began to recognise some of the children/parents hanging around the workshops and Fairy Houses area. We definitely had built a fan-base by this point. Again the shift was great fun and I only heard positive things about peoples experience with the Fairyland Trust.

 I also managed to listen to Dick and Dom doing a “Bogies” routine and the Wurzels whilst manning my post- both of which were a little surreal. I spent the afternoon watching some medieval  jousting action which led to the kids having a sword fight in front of the castle.

In the evening we saw a little bit of Alan Davies before meeting with some of the crew and watching the fireworks/projections from a cheeky “staff-only” location to the side of the main stage.

Monday

We were all packed-up early and making our way off-site by around 10:30am.

A massive thanks to the other crew members who put in a sterling effort with the set-up/pack down and to Clare who organised us in a serenely calm manner.

Thanks to everyone for reading!