No we didn’t lose a child at Camp Bestival as the title may suggest, in fact quiet the opposite happened and as cheesey as it may sound this wonderful festival bought our family closer together than ever, and my teenage son that has become so distant was a changed child!
For weeks number two had been making up excuses as to why he didn’t want to go away to Camp Bestival. We had a birthday party that if he didn’t attend would ruin his life, a sleepover the entire class was going to and he would be the only one not there to a whole host of illnesses that suddenly appeared every few days!
Even as close as the night before he was complaing of crippling stomach pains. To be honest I had to admire his staying power.
We didn’t crack and piled him into the car dreading what lay ahead as I had visions of him ruining the entire trip with his strops and temperamental attitude.
We made our way down to the entrance with him moaning about the lack of Wifi and KFC and telling us how we were ruining his entire summer holiday.
It didn’t take long for reality to set in and for him to realise this would be his home for the next few days and he may as well just get on with it.
He got stuck in with helping to put up the tent and blowing up the many air beds, helped my with the mammoth task of getting everything from the car and loved getting the little kitchen area set up so he could help prepare our food.
He happily played hide and seek with the little ones around the campsite and became a bit of a magnet to the children in the neighbouring tents who all loved playing football and Nerf gun fights with him.
He got involved in everything at the festival from excitedly jumping on all the fairground rides to helping his brothers and sister with quiet crafts.
Don’t get me wrong he was still mortified with me when I started dancing to Bananarama and was not enthralled with having to endure Mr Tumble but that care free, happy child was found once again and I absolutely loved it!
The lure of the XBox had been taken away and he found pleasure in simple childhood activities once more. He bought a diablo that he spent hours perfecting tricks on and got such pleasure from allowing the little ones to bury him completely in the sandpit.
What I loved most though was the walk to and from the campsite where we would have chats about nothing in particular as these moments at home have been lost to the technical world and the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Camp Bestival has pulled him from the shell he had become encased in and I will be forever grateful for that.
As I’m sure you all know if you follow my blog we attended 
