[press invite]
In June 2021 I headed to Sussex to go to my first We Are Not A Festival with some friends. It was a lovely way to ease out of lockdown restrictions and back into fields. We stayed in a Gold Bell Tent from Portobello Tents which was divine.
Origin
We Are Not A Festival was started in the summer of 2020 by Shelley, who wanted to host an event for a very small capacity of people (approx ~650) which had the vibe and essence of a festival but with no crowds, extra space, and extra attention to workshops and family activities. This idea was obviously sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic that had been a global problem for 6 months by then, and there was a need for some connection after the first lockdown. However the idea of a more boutique event with a smaller capacity that was still based in a larger space, was one that continued beyond “the new normal”. This first event was hosted in Pippingford Park, in Sussex, which is the same space that hosts Elderflower Fields festival. It was a huge success, with many attendees saying it was the perfect way to dip a toe into festivals whilst feeling completely safe.
WANAF returned in 2021 to the same location over the Summer Solstice weekend, with the same small capacity, but new workshops and some excellent musicians added to the line up. I was invited along with some friends to check out this small non-festival, and was excited just to spend some times in fields for the first time in over a year.
Main Area, Folly Stage & the Wellness Lakeside Stage
The main festival site consisted of a small (but mighty!) music stage – the Folly Stage – with coloured tables in front. When you enter the festival, each group of campers is given a colour – pink, blue or green – this is your colour for the weekend. We were given Pink, which meant we must only sit at the pink tables and use the pink labelled toilets. A simple system but it worked well!
There were also two covered tents, one was the Crafting tent where lots of workshops took place, and then a large bar tent (which was even showing the Euros England football game on the Friday night!) that also had coloured tables to carry on the system. There were a few other workshop tents – silver jewellery making, mosaic making – and then a circus and aerial aerobics area between the trees. Then we had the food vans, and of course the info and merch tents. It was a lovely wooded area and everything was a short walk. The only thing missing from near here were toilets – if you needed the loo you had to walk back to the campsite.
The Lakeside stage was past the wellness area in the woods, but was a gorgeous walk to get to, and hosted lots of mindfullness/wellness workshops. It was truly peaceful down there, I wish I’d squeezed in a few more sessions!
Glamping/Boutique Camping with Portobello Tents
Laura contacted me before the festival to ask if I wanted to stay with Portobello again in one of her gorgeous Gold Bell Tents for WANAF and of course I was delighted to say yes! I’d stayed in a Lotus Belle Tent before but not the standard Bells so I was excited to see the difference. Also Ben had never experienced the Portobello Tents glamping luxury so I was excited for him to experience it!
Portobello Tents are a company that provide luxury canvas tents for festivals and events, and also private hire. They are particularly brilliant in my mind because they think about the small details! You really do feel special, and the biggest reason: all booked tents come with real wooden beds set up in the formation you need (couple, friends, family, twin etc)! These are real beds and have real memory foam mattresses, with proper duvets and pillows too. Honestly I am a seasoned camper and like to think I am usually comfy with my self-inflating mattress bed set-up, but this is another world entirely. I sleep better in these beds than I do in my bed at home! It’s incredible what a difference a really decent night’s sleep makes to a festival.
The Gold Bells are spacious 5m, and come with hessian matt floors (no slipping!), towels, blankets, a clothes rail (!!), table and chairs, bedside tables & lamps, a bin… everything you could need! Here’s a little video tour I did of ours once we’d settled in:
The glamping area had its own toilets and showers which were always fabulously clean. And Laura’s staff were always so helpful if we needed anything – like directions, or a replacement battery for our bedside lamp. I honestly think if you want to make a festival extra special (and 200% less stressful!) and you see its Portobello running the glamping, then it will be worth every penny.
Campsite & Amenities
The main campsite was situated just behind the glamping area, and was a huge space on a slight hill with lots of springy grass. There was enough space for groups to set up big areas with gazebos, and still have metres between each group. The toilets were proper flushing cubicles which we love to see! The only problem here was that they were all on one side of the field towards the bottom way through to the main area, which was fine unless you’d camped up the top on the other side, which would have been a long walk for a wee! I think a couple of portable toilets up the top of the field would be a great addition for next year.
The main campsite also had lovely hot showers, all free for use and I never saw a long queue. There were a number of water taps with gravel underneath, so no muddy puddles! And finally the campervans were all up the top of this same field but on the slightly flatter part, so it took a little longer to walk back to these.
Music
I’ll just list a few of my musical highlights, because all the acts we saw were fantastic and honestly, I was just so over the moon to be watching live music again!
Angus Clements – played on the Friday – just a man, his guitar, and a gorgeous, silky voice. We sat with pints of cider and listened to him tell his musical stories. Just a genuinely lovely chap.
Karyo – Saturday – this Kimono-sporting high energy band really picked up the pace on Saturday night! They are a 5 piece hip hop band from Bristol with a sprinkling of funk and ska. They got everyone up on their feet dancing and shouting the choruses. They covered some political elements like climate change which honestly this was the perfect crowd for. We loved them.
Jack Sellen – Friday DJ set – I had had a number of espresso martinis by the time of Jack’s set so all I really remember was thinking how many bangers were played! All my group were bouncing, we absolutely loved it. Disco funky fabulousness.
Jodie Yang Cooper – Saturday late, closing the stage – Jodie was a huge surprise and I think my highlight of the weekend! She’s an excellent DJ playing some club classics expertly mixed, but not only that, she sings live. Imagine hearing the epic intro to Freed From Desire (like we’ve all heard so many times before in clubs) but then – in comes this incredible live voice instead!
Dr Bluegrass and the Illbilly 8’s – Sunday evening – What a way to kick off the evening! These guys cover traditional bluegrass, but also gospel, folk, pop and rock. They really brought out the last of my weekend energy (which I thought was all spent!). There were singalongs, foot stomps, thighs slaps… the works! Hoping I can see these guys again soon!
Workshops
There were so many brilliant workshops over the two days, a few of which were already sold out, but we booked 3 for our group, all of which were great fun.
On the Saturday we did Morning Meditation with Joey, which was honestly divine. We needed to get to the lakeside tent/stage for 8.30am, which we almost missed but that was only because (like a lot of others!) we underestimated the time needed to get there. It was a good 15 minutes from the main site, down a beautiful but slightly treacherous-with-mud walkway through the woods. Once we arrived though, it was genuinely gorgeous, and we were told that the lake we were overlooking was the lake that inspired part of Winnie The Pooh. Joey invited us to sit or lay down, whichever we were most comfortable, and talked us through a calm yet energising meditation which centred around us being instead of doing. We breathed in the scent of burning sage, nurtured a sense of serenity, and left feeling ready to face the day.
That afternoon we spent an hour and a half in the craft tent with Yan making floral headpieces with real flowers! We each got to pick a bunch of flowers from the buckets, so you could choose which colour/flower selection suited you best. I chose a selection of purple/pink/white/yellows. Then we were taught how to make the wire band structure that your flowers would be attaching to, and particularly how to ensure it fit your head perfectly! Yan then helped us cut the flower stems to the right size, and then gave us advice on how best to attach and arrange them on our headpiece. It was such a delightful hour and we were all so pleased with the results! We just wish we could then have somehow frozen them so they remained beautiful to reuse!
Finally on Sunday we did Model Making in the morning, which was billed as “not just for kids!”. We each were given a plasticine modelling kit, which we were told was the same materials that they use for Wallace & Gromit at Aardman Animations. Our guide showed us how to make legs first, then a t-shirt/body, and then arms. We added metal pins to form a ‘skeleton’, and topped off with a head. Then came the details of eyes, face, hair, hands etc. I have to say it was weirdly therapeutic! I decided to make a model of Ben, my boyfriend, and he decided to also make a model of himself… so now we have two mini Ben’s sat at home!
Food & Drink
The bar at We Are Not A Festival was frankly fabulous! They had a great one-way system in place to order, and table service in the bar tent itself that you could order from your phone. In the evenings they even sent staff out to tables by the stage with iPads to order from so you could stay watching the bands! One of the bar staff in particular was so fabulous, he was super attentive and kept coming over to our table right on time for us to order another round! The cocktails they had were delicious; an espresso martini, and also a strawberry and basil number… and they were made each fresh in cocktail shakers, no premixed cans in sight and cost £8. Ben was happy with the cider selection, and pints were around £5.
The food was the one place I think needs improvement for next year. There were 2 food vendors, but one was split into two different fronts. There was a Vegan jackfruit van, and then then main Big Yellow Bus cafe which also had a Toastie van next to it but these two were linked. The main problem was, these vendors would stop serving for periods of time, so sometimes if you were hungry there was nowhere open, and these were normal-ish times for example 11.30am or 4pm. They also would run out of almost everything quite quickly, or there were huge queues. The toastie van for example ran out of cheese on both the Saturday and the Sunday – you would think they might know that that is their main ingredient! There were points when we were all so hungry and would have thrown money at any vendor that was open but no where was. I think having one place that can consistently make something simple and hot through all the hours would be appreciated for next year. And the vendors should definitely know that demand is high even for a small capacity crowd!
However I will say that the food I actually got to eat was great – I had a vegan doner kebab on the first night that was packed full of salad and came with the yummiest chilli and garlic sauces. I also loved the katsu ‘chicken’ bites with chips from the vegan van. From the Yellow Bus I had a big breakfast that did definitely hit the spot, and also a yummy brie, tomato and spring onion toastie. I sadly missed all the delicious sounding buddha bowls and evening special dinners they had on but that is partly my fault as they did post the timings.