The Just So Festival With Low Cost Vans

We had some really amazing adventures over the summer and one of the highlights was our action packed weekend at the Just So Festival, it's the second time we have made our way up north to this wonderful family friendly festival and its certainly reconfirmed to us that this is one of our favourites and combines everything we love about camping, outdoor forest fun, music and good food. 

As the drive from South Wales up to Rode Hall near Stoke-on-Trent takes around 4hrs and our car has been a little unreliable of late the fantastic people at Low Cost Vans in Cardiff offered for us to try out one of their smaller family type vans that feels and drives like a car but offers all the space and comfort of a van, meaning zero sacrifice on space which is just what you need when packing for a glamping weekend with kids. Despite having to take a tent it's surprising how much space four sleeping bags, airbeds, clothes and food for a weekend take up!

We left around midday on the Friday, a little later than planned because as many know packing with two excited kids around is not the easiest thing to do. We decided to bypass the motorways due to roadworks and instead opted for a more scenic route through Wales which was a very relaxing way to start. The weather was a little hit and miss and around 35 mins away from the festival is was pouring down but luckily it cleared up and we manage to unpack and get settled without getting too wet.

If you read my blog you will know we love to camp but decided to try out VinTents, a new glamping company to the festival scene that offers up a true vintage experience of staying in real retro tents, each in different colours and design. The small glamping field is located inside the festival making it really easy to pop back and forth to the tent and Vintents also offers a reception space should you have any issues with your tent, which we didn't of course.

By the time we were all sorted, airbeds up, sleeping bags unrolled, food unpacked it was already getting quite dark so we decided to walk over to get a bite to eat, both boys were very excited to see Cotswold Corn Roast which was a firm favourite from our previous Just So festival experience. We then headed over to the Spellbound forest for a little campfire shindig which was a perfect way to end our first day here.

We woke up pretty early on the Saturday as we want to get as much done before the rain set in later in the day especially as this year you could hire rowing boats down in the high seas so we made a bee line for that first thing. While we waited for a rowing boat to become available we enjoyed the large-scale sculptural installation using things like the weather to make art and music. We then spent a few hours enjoying the music in the travelling barn and silver screen, as well as The Prosecco Pot and pizza. 

When the rain came in we took shelter in the Spellbound forest and Away with the Fairies enjoying all the activities and workshops such as making mud men, weaving teepees and making wands as well as meeting the Fairy Queen and earning our first gold pebble. We had decided to join the Frog tribe - the tribes are apart of the Just So traditional and make for a real community with everyone trying to gain as many gold pebbles from team leaders to contribute to their teams score.

Over the duration of the weekend we spent each night listening to music by the fire, letting the boys run a riot around the village green and partake any of the fun activities, theatre shows and street performances. We enjoyed some amazing food with an array of vegetarian and meat options. When it rained to heavy we would either spend time in the forest or in our vintage tent and soaked up the atmosphere.

What I really like about Just So is all the different areas, it's very hard to get bored here and whichever way you turn there is something exciting going on. It's truly a festival of art, creativity, imagination and music and savouring the simplicity of a wild and free childhood. Just So is also perfect for those with babies as there is feeding, changing and bathing tents as well as the Weleda tent offering natural skincare advice to parents, as well as a baby book club and workshop for 0-4yr olds. Both boys really enjoyed the barefoot walk in the spell bound forest in which you followed a winding path walking over different textures, my eldest also really enjoyed learning all about space at the Space Shed and taking on real life human size retro games such as Pacman and Tetris.  

The weekend also gave me the chance to try out my Wandrkit which is a great little kit to pop into your bag and has everything you need for a weekend away with some ethical travel size products especially the Bentley organic hand sanitiser, cucumber facial wipes and crystal rock deodorant. 

Despite the odd heavy rain showers over the weekend the atmosphere was so positive and electric that everyone gets into the spirit of things, plus there is plenty of places to take cover including the big social barn or circus skills tent (which we spent many an hour honing in our circus skills) and as long as you came ready with wellies and warm sleeping bags there was no reason to have loads of fun. On the last day they always have the tribal games, my eldest was having too much fun exploring all the different areas of the festival to take part but we did enjoy swinging pillows at each other in the huge pillow fight with feathers flying everywhere. We certainly recommend this festival as it's one of the best in the UK and we literally cannot wait until next year.