When I talk to people about our festival antics, some people occasionally express surprise about the kind of things we get up to when we’re there.
I guess, festivals come in all shapes and sizes, and if you’ve only ever witnessed Glastonbury on the TV, you could be lulled into thinking that all festivals resemble that.
Loud, muddy, and overwhelming.
And in some cases you’d be right.
But not always.
I was chatting to one of the carers at the boys’ holiday club last week and when I mentioned that we’d learnt how to make pom poms at Camp Bestival, she was totally astonished.
The conversation went a little like this:
You learnt how to make pom poms at a festival??
Yes, that’s right!
I’d no idea that you could do that kind of thing at festivals!!
And so on…
I guess, it’s just another aspect of festivals that I love. They don’t have to be wild and frenetic.
They can be.
But they can also be gentle and creative.
You can always be fairly sure that you’ll stumble across come crafty goings on; be it lantern making, silversmithing, or making faces from clay (another post coming up soon on that!).
Learning how to make pom poms at Camp Bestival
There was a whole new area at this year’s Camp Bestival — the Craft Corner.
But although the Craft Corner was a new addition to the Lulworth camp, we’ve always loved this particular zone of the festival.
For the last couple of years the Dingly Dell has been home to a little petting zoo — I wrote about it in a previous post.
Plus it also houses Lizzie’s Way — one of the best things to go and see at Camp Bestival if you have small children.
This year, lovely Katie Jones — colour lover and knitter extraordinaire — had taken up residence where the farm used to be. Instead of chicks and bunnies, there was an equally fluffy offering; in the form of pom poms.
To say we all enjoyed this workshop was an understatement. We LOVED it!!
We spent a very enjoyable hour or so, learning how to make pom poms under the watchful guidance of Katie and her team.
Only to have Bertie lose his down one of the festival toilets a few hours later.
Oh.
Not a highlight of this year’s Camp Bestival, it must be said.
Another Day, Another Pom Pom
Fortunately, Katie and her team were there the next day too.
So instead of going to the Castle Stage to Dinosaur Word Live — which we’d planned to do — we ended up back at the Craft Corner.
This time, the boys needed no introduction and happily got stuck in.
I think, even though the first pom pom ended up down the loo, it’s demise was just a convenient excuse to go back and make more pom poms.
It’s such a lovely, satisfying craft.
Endlessly rewarding, it’s lovely for little kids and big kids alike.
We enjoyed learning how to make pom poms so much, when we left Camp Bestival, we hotfooted it straight down to Hobbycraft and bought some pom pom makers and yarn so we could carry on while we were on holiday down in Dorset.
The question now stands, what are we gong to do with them all?!
Im thinking I might edge a blanket in pom poms, to put in Dolly*.
Does anyone have any other nice ideas?
To see more of what we got up to at this year’s Camp Bestival, have a little watch of our film!
Caro Davies is a former art-director turned writer and content-creator, and editor behind UK lifestyle blog The Listed Home. She writes about home-related topics, from interiors and DIY to food and craft. The Listed Home has been featured in various publications, including Ideal Home, Grazia, and Homes & Antiques magazines.
