It was almost the end of my festival season 2019, but I had one last surprise waiting for me! I returned to the excellent Camp Wildfire, in Sevenoaks, Kent, on the first weekend of September for a magical mix of adult adventure camp and music festival!
I first attended in 2017, then missed 2018 due to a holiday, so I was really excited to come back again. Last time, I had gone with 3 friends, and we booked our activities together. This time round, I was going to the festival on my own, so had more flexibility and choice of what I wanted to do. It is actually the perfect weekend break to go to solo, as the activities are the perfect new-friend-making opportunity! I’d recommend joining the Flying Solo Camp Wildfire Facebook group to say hi to other friendly solos if you’re considering it!
What I got up to during my wonderful weekend at Camp Wildfire 2019:
Friday night – arrival, making friends, exploring, the Brass Funkeys, and Little Gay Brother takeover
I arrived around 7.45pm on Friday to the lovely Camp Wildfire site near Hever in Kent, as I’d come straight from work. The car park is barely 100m from where you’ll actually be pitching your tent, which is one of the little things that I really appreciate about smaller festivals! I was able to do two trips to the car in a matter of minutes. On my first entry I was asked what my Patrol affinity was (options are Badger, Hawk, Fox or Squirrel), which of course for me is Fox Patrol! Also one thing to note is that you’re only allowed up to 6 cans of alcohol with you on entering Wildfire, but this is manageable because the bars are very reasonably priced (more on this later).
I tried my best to find the Flying Solo campers area, and I wasn’t too far off, but the campsite was getting quite full up at this point, so I found a space a short while away for my Gorilla Tents 3 man pop up. Once I was all set up and everything in from the car, I text the lovely Twitter friend who had invited me – Thomas aka My Little Voyage and we found a spot to rendezvous. This was when our friendship went from online to real life! We hung out for most of the weekend 🙂
Along with Thomas’ camp mates, we went into the main ‘arena’ bit, which is in the middle of a gorgeous woodland. Walking down the path into the trees was just as magical as I remembered. We got our bearings and headed to the main bar. Wildfire only serve drinks in their enamel pint mugs, which they sell for £5 and are brilliant souvenirs! You need to keep your mug on you the whole time. I actually brought my mug from 2017 and used that for my trips to the bar for cider! (also around £5) We also visited the Camp Shop, and I bought a red necker (go Foxes 🦊) along with some enamel pins.
The evening consisted of getting to know my new pals and meeting more people, until the Brass Funkeys took to the stage! We wiggled our way to the front for their set, and the main stage tent went crazy! Such brilliant brass beats – a mix of originals and covers. One of my favourites was the Bear Necessities, with a chorus of Sean Paul’s “Get Busy” in the middle. Why not eh?
The headline act for the first night was Little Gay Brother – a fantastic dance group with an amazing DJ. These lovelies always put on the best parties… they were great on the Metropolis stage at Boomtown Fair 2019 with the 2 Bears. The group of four dancers came stomping out wearing pink camouflage outfits that gave me envy! The tunes were slightly House-y versions of all the party classics. The dancers came out into the crowd once or twice and really got everybody hyped up. I was sad when I forced myself to go to bed at 1am, as I was really enjoying myself! But I knew I had a day of full on activities the next day and I should get at least 5 hours of good sleep… So I reluctantly took myself off to bed.
Saturday day – Acrylic Jewellery, Quad Biking, Screen Printing, Space Science, and Cocktail Making
I woke up nice and early to make sure I was ready for the day. I was in the shower at just before 7am, they were nice and hot, and there was no queue (winner!). I then treated myself to a yummy breakfast muffin from Original Fry Up Material – it was £9 for the muffin (sausage, bacon, cheese & egg), a hash brown and a tea/coffee. It was honestly delicious. Really good flavour!
I got dressed ready for another hot day and put on my new Necker with enamel pins. My first activity at 9am was in the Meadow, so I strolled into the trees to start my day. It was in the morning daylight that it sunk in just how beautiful the location is! The woods are an arboretum and there are so many different types of gorgeous trees.
My first Camp Wildfire 2019 activity was Acrylic Jewellery Making. We were all sat at a table with a clamp and a saw. There were paper shapes we could use to guide us in the middle of the table, or we could make a shape of our own design. We chose the colour of our acrylic, and set to work! It was very fiddly, sawing out the shapes carefully. It was nice that everyone around the table got chatting, a common theme for the whole weekend! Everyone was so friendly! I (somehow) managed to construct a Fox head shape from red acrylic, then stuck some smaller white pieces on to finish it off. I was very pleased with it, a cute way to show my Fox Patrol pride, and also got given a patrol point for my efforts! They only give one or two of these out per session so I felt very pleased with myself.
Next up was my first Gold activity – Quad Biking! This was in Adventure Valley, back behind the campsite, so I strolled over after putting my Patrol Point in the points jars. It was beautiful and sunny, and I was looking forward to this one! We gathered on the grass, and the activity leader read out the first 10 names on her sheet, (I think this was based on when you booked, I got in fast so…) luckily my name was called! This meant I was in the first group going out on the quads. We were given helmets, and taught how the bikes worked. Then off we went! We went one by one in a line follow the leader style, with an activity leader at the front and the back.
We were taken down a track which was super bumpy in places! But there were also bits more out in the open where we could go a bit faster. There was one particular turn which scared me because I’m a wuss! It was a super sharp, almost full 180 left turn, on an upward slant, and on gravel. I felt like the bike was going to skid on the gravel and I had to lean all the way over… but I just about made it up! We were on the bikes for around 20-25mins before returning back to base and swapping to the next group. One thing with this activity is that it blocks out 1.5hours of your day (as it’s a Gold) but you may be done a lot quicker than that as I was, if your name is called early and you’re one of the first groups to go out. Each time slot should have 3 groups of approx. 10 going out on the bikes going out one after the other. This was good for me though as I could go and crack on with more Bronze activities.
I used the time wisely and went to get a tote bag screen printed. I think this is a lovely feature of Wildfire! Screen Printing is free if you bring your own item to print onto (tshirt, hoody, bag etc), or you can buy plain items to print onto at the Camp Shop. This essentially means merchandise is free or cheap and you get a hand in making it yourself! You can only print one thing at a time however and usually there was a queue of around 15 mins.
For lunch I opted for chicken goujons and chips from the Smoking Rat which were actually delicious, along with a lunchtime pint of cider from the bar, then it was time for Tie Dye (Silver), which I’d done in 2017 so was already a pro 😉 I was really impressed with my creation last time, so was even more prepared this year and brought a cute crop top to tie dye. I went experimental and chose one of the more difficult ‘designs’; a spiral. I tied my knots, added the dye, and left my colourful bundle to soak in the sun.
Next up was Space Science (Silver), and I’d heard great things about this one! Our teacher was Paul Hill, master Astronomer, and all round amazing dude. We learned about space suits, zero gravity, and loads more, all with practical experiments and amazing stories & facts from Paul. I can’t remember ever having a teacher this engaging at school. This ended up being one of my favourite activities of the weekend!
My final activity of the day was Cocktail Making (Silver) – an obvious choice for me! But I had no idea what I was in for. As it turned out, the activity was run by Caorunn gin (winner for me, the gin lover!) and had us learning to make two yummy cocktails – firstly the classic Bramble, and then what our brilliant bartender extraordinaire, Jay, called ‘Summer in a Cup’. When we arrived we were given a ‘perfect serve’ G&T (with a slice of red apple in it!), while Jay explained the history behind the Scottish brand, then he showed us how to make the cocktails including specific muddling and shaking techniques. In pairs, we then took it in turn to make each one. The best part? We got to drink them all! Thomas and I were both signed on to this activity so we had brilliant fun showing off our shaking skills together. The funniest part was when Thomas broke one of the ‘unbreakable’ Boston glass shakers! Needless to say we both left this activity unashamedly tipsy… and with a new favourite gin brand!
Saturday night – pizza, Astronomy, dancing, Keston Cobbler’s Club, and DJ Yoda
After a jam-packed day of incredible activities, we nipped back to the tents to refresh, and grab our warm layers for the evening, then walked back to the action (which takes around 10mins maximum). We needed to line our stomachs for the evening, and Thomas and I needed something to balance out our tipsyness, so we each had a big delicious wood fired pizza. Some more of our camp pals met us while we were eating, and we all caught up with what we had each got up to throughout the day. It was a great hour or so telling stories and getting jealous of activities we didn’t personally do – I essentially already have a shopping list of what I’m doing next year!
We’d booked onto the 9pm Astronomy slot, meaning it was nice and dark by then. We were reunited with the amazing astronomer Paul from our earlier Space Science activity. There were 3 large telescopes set up to look at certain space phenomena, and Paul did a great job of explaining what we were looking at in each one. Then we all took it in turns to take a peek. It was definitely an art for a novice to properly look and see without nudging the telescopes… An art that I failed at by fully knocking the second one way off course. In my defence, it was pitch black by the ‘scopes (by design, so we could see the stars better) and I’d had some drinks. Paul quickly righted my mistake however, and his lesson continued, with some brilliant facts and lessons. One of the highlights for sure!
After Astronomy we ambled into the main stage tent to get a drink from the bar and to get a good spot for Keston Cobblers Club. The DJ that was on beforehand was playing some awesome electroswing tracks, and in the crowd, people started breaking out into swing dancing! It was so good to watch and got me so excited for my Swing Dancing activity that I’d booked for the next day!
Cocktail in hand (espresso martinis for £8! 😍) we wiggled our way to the front for Keston Cobblers Club. This is the band that started it all… the first Camp Wildfire was put together to film a music video for the band, and it went so well they decided to make it a yearly event! The festival was founded by two people, Lee and Jules, and Jules is the keyboardist and singer for KCC, so this was an unmissable moment!
There was definitely an incredible vibe in the tent for their set! The love and gratitude was pouring out from the crowd and band alike. It almost felt like a homecoming, you could tell the band were having the most fun, like playing to a tent of friends and family (which we are!). Before “Your Mother”, Jules attempted to teach us a dance routine to the song, which resulted in the crowd doing their very best, but in practise, hilariously flailing their arms around to the rather fast beat! Still, the smiles all round stretched from ear to ear.
After KCC came the headline act of DJ Yoda – one of those great DJs that I’ve seen countless times because he’s so fab! Thomas, Hannah, Lily and I all ended up on the stage dancing away for many an hour! I was that level of drunk where I definitely was dancing like nobody was watching… but that’s what made it even more fun! Yoda plays the most incredible bassy mash ups. We ended up dancing right next to the DJ decks which was brilliant. I smiled so much this night, my face hurt the next day! I finally trundled off to bed around 2am.
Sunday day – Bread Baking, Mask Making, Swing Dancing, Crossbow Shooting & Board Games
I woke up at 7am with a minor headache, but rushed to the showers to beat the queues, then came back to my tent to snooze for a bit longer. I cleverly booked my first activity on the Sunday for 10am, so I had some time to relax into the day. This time I got breakfast from veggie food van The Rattling Pan, which was a breakfast bap containing egg, cheese and homemade hashbrowns. It was absolutely delicious!
Not only had I given myself a slow start, I’d also preempted my hangover and chosen my first activity of the day to be Bread Baking (Gold). We gathered in the woods and introduced to two lovely ladies who run bush skills workshops in Devon. We were given the option to make Rosemary bread or Chocolate bread. I went for Rosemary, and I was glad I did when I smelt the freshness of the herb! We split into two groups for the two flavours, and mixed our dough in big bowls, taking it in turns to mix and knead. Our teacher was telling us the origins of bushcraft, and essentials she carries in her pack when she goes trekking. Once our dough was mixed and kneaded, we were each given a piece, and a long stick from a Beech tree that had been recently chopped off (the wood was still ‘alive’) – this meant it wouldn’t burn in the fire.
We wrapped the dough around the stick in a spiral, tucked in the ends, and then were taken over to the fire. We positioned our sticks over the hot coals at the edge of the fire, held in place with more heavy logs. Then we stood up and had a lovely chat while we waited for our bread to bake! It was another great opportunity to get to know more campers. After a few rotations of our sticks, and about 20 minutes, our bread was ready for eating! It felt super rustic to be pulling chunks of fresh hot bread off a stick, and it tasted just divine. I loved this activity! And can’t wait for my next opportunity to make bread over an open fire like this.
Thomas and I then met up to do a few Bronze activities while we had a gap. We started with Mask Making, where I made a lovely Fox mask (obviously) from coloured card using wooden templates.
Then we moved over to Dr Hope’s Board Games, which turned out to be one of my top times of the weekend! I love a good board game, and this place was brilliant. You could turn up at any time, and the Activity leaders would either recommend you a game for the size of your group, or they’d pair you up with others, or play with you themselves. They had a great selection! Over the course of Sunday, we kept nipping back, and we played Dobble, Santorini and Codenames. It was the perfect place to head to when you had a break in activities and wanted a chill / sit down but with something to do.
At 1pm, Thomas and I went to Camp Council having picked up a halloumi wrap for lunch. This is essentially where campers get the chance to speak to Wildfire festival organisers Lee & Jules; to give feedback, to ask for certain activities for the following year, or in general just to say thanks! This was a wonderful experience, with everyone sat in a circle and having the opportunity to have their say. It was here we suggested they do some one day events throughout the year (as the love for Wildfire is so strong, everyone wanted a reunion!) – and amazingly, they announced Winter Wildfire soon after this main festival event! I love that they take the time to talk to people at the event like this and actually action some of the suggestions given. Makes you really feel part of something 🙂
Next up was Swingdancing (Silver) which I was so excited about! It was being run by two teachers from Swing Patrol who run classes all over London and Brighton. The 1 hour session was amazing, teaching us a version of Lindyhop, and building it up piece by piece so even uncoordinated people like me could manage the basics by the end. This was another particularly friendly activity, because though we arrived in a pair, after every attempt at the dance steps, you moved around in a circle to dance with someone new. We all picked it up at different paces, but the teachers were good at making us repeat the difficult bits over and over, and eventually we all had the makings of a basic routine. I loved this activity so much, I’ve since been to a few of the classes that Swing Patrol run in South London! It’s a goal of mine for 2020 to go more. The dance is so fun, can be as simple or complex as you like, and looks really impressive!
I decided to round off my day with some Bronze activities in Adventure Valley. I’d booked onto Crossbow Shooting, so went there first. From my last time at Wildfire, I remembered being quite good at this, but clearly my eyes have gotten worse since 2017 because I had lost the knack. Still, I managed to get all my shots bar one onto the board, which was more than a lot of people could do! I then also tried a few other Bronze ones, that I could just walk up to but with a short wait as I hadn’t booked. I did a bit of Axe Throwing (still terrible at this) and also Archery (not god awful but not good either). It was a nice way to round off my day in the sunshine throwing sharp objects/shooting things! The instructors were brilliant too, ensuring everyone got a few turns, and being very hot on safety.
Sunday evening – Patrol games, winning the Cup, and heading home
Unfortunately I couldn’t stay for Sunday night, so after those last few Bronze activities, I took my bag and sleeping bits from the tent to the car. I left the tent up however just for the last few things.
It was then time for the final round of Patrol Games, which would decide which Patrol won the cup. While the final Points were being counted and teams were being organised for the final showdown (6 people per Patrol), there was an I’m A Celeb-style game played where one contestant from each Patrol had to eat a variety of ‘natural’ but responsibly sourced food for a chance at some extra points. Our Fox contestant put himself forward, and to be fair he did brilliantly, having to eat such delights as grubs and tarantulas – definitely could not have done it myself! We all cheered from the sidelines!
When the points were all counted, the standings were as follows: Foxes first, then Squirrels, then Hawks, then Badgers. Each team had to complete the Keen assault course, and press a timer at the end. This would then decide the final. The Squirrels were absolutely brilliant at the assault course and beat us to finish first! So in the final, it was Squirrels vs Foxes for the title, and the Squirrels had a 10 second head start on us.
The final involved the assault course again, but this time carrying round large tree logs. These would then be used at the end of the course to construct a catapult that had to stand on it’s own without support, then the catapult would be used to fire water balloons at a target. First to hit the target would win. All us campers were cheering our teams and the final was so close! I haven’t felt that kind of rush since team sports at school! 😂 The Squirrels were far ahead after the assault course but couldn’t get their catapult to stand up freely, so in true tortoise & hare style, us Foxes took our time but were confident with the catapult build, and managed to hit the target with the third water balloon! CHAMPIONS! 🏆
The Foxes cheers and celebrations went on for ages! Everyone was chatting and smiling and it was just great. We all got “Winners 2019” enamel badges too! After a lot of hugs, I made my way around the new friends I made over the weekend (and a few extras too), and said goodbye to them all. The party was just getting started in the main bar and everyone was in high spirits, I really didn’t want to leave but alas I had work the next day, so it was time to grab my tent and last few things and head home, with a huge, unshifting grin on my face!
Thank you Camp Wildfire for the most wholesome yet exciting weekend!
I love the perfect mix of daytime activities – a wonderful chance to try new things, and evening party – with excellent bands & DJs! A truly brilliant concept and completely unique.
Just had a token re-read! Sounds awesome and am very much looking forward to it? Skeptical about the swing dancing mind (hard swerve).
Roll on September