Barefoot Festival 27 -29th July 2012.

This is my first blog in over a week, got home from festival week today and its taken me until now to recover enough to put finger to keyboard!! Barefoot Festival was my first ever festival and also my first experience of camping so bought tent etc and by buying on the cheap made some errors as explain later. Left home on the Friday for the 2 hour car journey thou unfortunatly got delayed in traffic due to a horrible accident on the M1 with 2 lorries colliding. Still made it to the festival in plenty of time and what can I say it was better than i could have dared hope for and the weather was so beautiful, lovely and sunny, sat outside tent much of the time getting a tan and chilling. Its so hard to explain what the festival is so this information from their website can explain much better than me.
Barefoot Festival takes place in the sumptuous grounds of Prestwold Hall, Leicestershire –Middle England.
Now in our 7th year, this unique and family friendly little gathering just keeps getting better and better!
This is the Festival where YOU are the headliner!
A fabulous feast for your senses, fun, frolics and mayhem!
Get yourself moving with workshops in Belly Dance, Flamenco, African Dance, Yoga, French Can Can, Lindy Hop & Jive, Tai Chi, Trapeze and Aerial, Capoeira, Martial Arts, Meditation, Reiki, Drumming Circles, Circus Skills, Burlesque and much more…
We have live shows and entertainment running the whole week end with great Bands and musicians, singers and comedians, Can Can Dancers, exotic Belly Dancers, street style magic performance and our wonderfully popular Barefoot Busk Stops!
We’ll also be running arts and craft workshops with ample opportunity to communal art projects running throughout the week end.
For the kids, entertainment this year is organised by the fantastic
Angel Gardens who will create a specially dedicated Children’s Zone with crafts, workshops, entertainment, face painting and more..

NEW for 2012! VINTAGE AT BAREFOOT

We’ve teamed up with the good people at the Blooming Great British Vintage Tea Party to bring you a fabulous Vintage section at Barefoot!
Come celebrate “The Good Old Days!”  - There will be a Vintage Beauty Salon, an indoor and outdoor Vintage Market, dance classes - Jive, Lindy Hop, Rock and Roll and Charleston, a Vintage cafe & Pimms tent, a make-do and-mend style craft room, Burlesque Show, Vintage Bands and jukebox, classic car display, a Great British Outdoor style camping area and more TBC.

Barefoot by name, Barefoot by nature!

Barefoot is all about getting back to basics, getting grass in between your toes and taking time out from the pressures of modern life! Try something you’ve never done before, spend quality time with the family, meet like minded new friends.
You won’t find big fancy sponsors at Barefoot, we’re a grassroots community gathering and all profits are ploughed right back into improving the facilities at the festival. Relax, rewind and refresh yourself with a week end in the beautiful Great British countryside!
Hope you can join us this year, dancing Barefoot in the sunshine!
Come and be blissed out!

What struck me about the festival was how friendly everyone was, not one crossed word, everyone willing to help everyone else, was a real sense of community. Late friday afternoon myself and Sasha who i went with had a good look around all the stalls and really get to know all the people. In the evening drinks were being served from a vintage double decker bus, we sat outside having drink or 3 and watching the Burlesque show - very nice!!!!

That evening the temperature really dropped. After the show we went around the camp fire played drums and talked was such a wonderful way to finish the day. Both exhausted thought we get to sleep straight away but we both had single skin tents and being so cold with thick condensation in the tents neither of us were able to sleep a wink the entire night.

Next day we just relaxed, lovely and sunny again and enjoyed a sound bath ( I love singing Bowls) and also a heavenly foot massage. Relaxed and chilled were the key words, had a brilliant weekend, bought a few goodies and will definalty go again  - with a better tent next time!!