Well, what a weekend! Not only was it scorching hot - but we got to camp at Joy Festival in the beautiful setting of Groombridge Place in Tunbridge Wells on the Kent and East Sussex border.
We were very lucky that our new bell tent from Bell Tent Boutique arrived in the nick of time.
Groombridge is not too far from home so we arrived on Friday after picking the children up from school, parked up and used our Yippie Yo cross buggy to start transporting our camping equipment to the field.
The camping field was beautiful, set just behind the moated manor house and surrounded by willow trees - with peacocks roaming free. We found a nice spot opposite the boutique campers and set up our tent before we headed off to explore.
On our first night we headed towards the main stage where there were loads of fabulous market and food stalls - you could buy everything from bangers and mash to Thai street food - there was temptation all around. On the stage that night were Los Pacaminos featuring the one and only Paul Young! The three days of music has been curated by Chris Difford from Squeeze and Union Music.
The campsite was clean, the recycling and bin area were close by as were the toilets and showers. There were some VIP toilets and showers which people had payed in advance to use.
We started our day off on Saturday with breakfast by our tent, a couple of girls were doing some glitter make-up for only £1 so we all decided to have a bit of sparkle applied.
We headed in to the Enchanted Forest - we love it here, as usual it had been beautifully decorated there were bohemian parasols, hammocks, chair swings and circus performers as well as live reggae music by the pirate ship. Further in to the forest you can walk up towards the giant tree swings and the board walk where there were puppeteers wandering about.
At night this turned into the secret illuminated valley - my pictures really do it no justice at all - it was amazing and magical with art installations, eery music and mist.
That night we tried out the seven-course taster menu from Le Bun, it was set up in a private garden in a beautiful marquee - all I can say is Ox cheek and burnt butter mac and cheese is a revelation!
As well as the amazing food, great music and market stalls there was also a small vintage fun fair, the kids had a go on the coconut shy.
The day ended on Sunday, there were drummers playing by the ancient trees outside the manor house and more music on the main stage.
As far as market stalls go this had the most variety of any festival we have been to and it would be very easy to spend a fortune.
Overall it was a beautiful festival, not too crowded and the camping area was lovely. The children enjoyed everything but said they loved going into the forest at night time.
This is another one to watch for sure - we would recommend it to anybody.
It proved a little warm for our Frontier stove from Anevay but we did use it inside our bell tent on the Friday night when the temperature dropped.
