Camp Bestival 2024

2024 introduced some big changes to the layout and structure of Camp Bestival, much for the better. Let’s take a look at what Rob and Josie switched around for families attending the first big party of the summer holidays:

Layout. Two of the biggest icons of the festival, the Bestival Robots and the world’s biggest Bouncy Castle, have been moved front and center to the lower field, right by the campsites. This makes for a quicker trek to your child’s favorite attractions. Also added: a skate rink! The late-night “silent” disco was held here, to much teenage delight. (As a crusty long-timer: I’d like to introduce legislation that silent discos should not contain sing-a-longs.)

This change opened up space in the Lower Kids Field, which alongside the fairground rides, also features a wild-west style immersive theatrical stage showcasing performances and games. There’s so much more to see and do now at Camp Bestival, it’s easy to lose your kids amongst all the attractions.

Much creativity and effort was spent on these new experiences, in addition to the massive amount of planning put into the existing areas of the musical forest, wood-building structure, and fancy dress contest. This must have taken away from efforts put into procuring the lineup. Camp Bestival has never only been about musical lineups; that has always been on equal footing with the play and interactive experiences.

But in 2024, it felt the bands were nearly an afterthought, with Ibiza DJs and also-ran 00s boy bands populating headline slots. There were some great sets: Orbital blew the Big Top away on Friday night, offering Gen Xers and their teenage children an electronic bonding experience while Millennials drowned in nostalgia at McFly on the Castle Stage. During the day, The Darkness gave a fun-tastic set of their classics, and Craig Charles graced us with his funk soul party, a blistering hour of tunes perfectly suited for dancing with your family in the sunshine.

Camp Bestival has become a family tradition for us, our children getting as excited for “Robot Festival” as much as they do for Christmas. I do hope the organisers put a bit more oomph into the lineup next year, seeing as it will go back to only occurring in the one Dorset location.

What truly gives Camp Bestival its festive flavour is the crowd. The regulars have become a family of their own, with attendees organising their own events on social media. We discovered a yearly Nerf Gun war that takes place at the near edge of the campsite… right by where we placed our tent! 8-year-olds were running into our family Vango for shelter! We had no prior knowledge of this, but our 5-year-olds jumped right in, and next year we are joining the online consortium to help plan the shootout. This is a festival that is created by the goers, not just Rob and Josie, so we’ll be back every year to do our bit.