Confession, I am not a lover of camping. However I love festivals and when camping is needed on one of our global adventures, I grit my teeth and bear it. At least with festivals, alcohol is generally involved to help! However, we were really keen to get to a festival this year, as we haven’t been since we moved back from Australia and having Kitale didn’t put us off at all.
We have wanted to go to Wilderness for a few years and it seemed perfect for our first festival with a bub.
Wilderness did not disappoint and is the perfect choice for families and kids of all ages – I couldn’t recommend it enough – we are already signing up for next year! Not only is the music great, but you can catch amazing talks and debates, enjoy the beautiful outdoors (did I mention the lakeside spa?!) and take part in lots of workshops. The food is fantastic and you don’t have to worry about finding something other than chips and burgers to feed the kids, as there is so much choice – where else can your babe tuck into a healthy Deliciously Ella feast?
Anyway I could talk about Wilderness all day, but thought I would share a few festival essentials that we found really helpful with Kitale, as I found it difficult finding tips before we went,
- Ear defenders – we have the Baby Banz ones which are great and look fab too. Great for watching live acts. Kitale wouldn’t keep them on when on the move but when asleep, they were a life saver.
- Baby carrier – Great for us as Kitale is still little and not walking. I think next year we shall have to upgrade to a little cart. We have the Baby Bjorn One which is so comfortable and means you are hands free and we get to dance with our lil lady.
- Portable cot – we have a great Deryan pop up cot that we always take travelling with us. It was the perfect size for our tent, Kitale slept in it most nights but also crawled in with us. It does get quite cold at night, so we made it really snug with lots of blankets underneath and a sheepskin rug.
- Warm sleepsuit and growbag – we needed to keep her warm, so layered Kitale up in a vest, warm sleepsuit and a 3.5 tog growbag.
- Puddle/rain suit – we were lucky with the weather and only needed to use her puddle suit one evening. But definitely one not to forget and also when it is as cool her unicorn suit.
- Camping stove and washing up bowl – thankfully one of the other Mums had all the camping gear. These were essential for waming milk and keeping bottles clean.
- Snacks – Ella’s Kitchen and Tilda Kids to the rescue. Great to just have a lots of these on hand throughout the day. However as mentioned before, Wilderness had such a great selection of food. Although Kit’s favourite (and ours!) had to be Anna Mae’s Mac and Cheese truck!
- Evening prep – get the kids in their sleep suits, and make sure you have everything eg. dummies bottles, snacks before you head out. Also make sure you have everything set up at the tent before you go, so its easy to transfer them into their bed when you get back when its dark and you aren’t fumbling around! Also double check your tent is set up properly, ours collapsed on us the first night!
- Festival outfits – Kitale rocked tutus and gold leggings at Wilderness. Sorry I couldn’t help myself!
- Great company – we went with some great friends who both also had one year olds. It was great seeing all the babes together and just easy to get around as we were all responsible for lil humans!
- Grandparents – not an essential but we were lucky enough to have Jon’s parents come pick Kitale up on our final night 🙂 which meant Jon and I got a baby free night festival night in as well! Where would be be without Grandparents!!!
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