Are you looking for a festival that has insanely good music, incredible food and is fun for all the family? Then The Big Feastival is the festival for you!
When Jessi offered me the opportunity to go, I jumped at the chance. Living fairly locally, the Big Feastival had always been on my radar with it’s impressive lineup of both music and entertainment but also food! So, bags packed, my sister and I headed over to Alex James’ farm in the Cotswolds and here is what we got up to:
Getting there, arrival and setting up camp
We left the house mid morning and and arrived to the site an hour later. Getting into the site was very easy and leaving a little bit later, we had no queues getting in. The signs on the road were easy to follow and staff waved us in and got us parked up super quickly. If you do drive and are parking for the weekend, you will need to purchase a weekend car pass which like most things is cheaper to buy online before you go, however you can buy a pass on arrival.
If you are travelling by train, the nearest station is Kingham which is 3 minutes away from the site and is 90 minutes away from London Paddington.
Getting from the car to the campsite was so easy and quick and was around 5-10 minutes each way. This meant that we could do a couple of trips or quickly nip back to the car to grab an extra blanket without having to worry about walking a mile or two (a la Glastonbury).
The staff on arrival to the gate were so friendly and excited, tickets were scanned and we were in in a matter of seconds. The campsites were right as you walk in as well so we found a spot and got our tent up super quickly.
The campsite at Big Feastival
Having only been to Glastonbury, I was expecting the campsite to be packed with tents but in reality it was much more relaxed. There was plenty of space between tents which meant that you weren’t climbing between tents or tripping over guy-ropes constantly.
There are two main camping areas and each one is fenced off with security checking wristbands 24/7. This sounds a bit intense but it was nice knowing that the campsite was quite secure and only people camping could access the area.
There were separate male and female portaloos which were the cleanest I’ve ever seen ever! One of my worries about festivals and camping is the toilets as I’ve heard many horror stories but these were immaculate. Along with the clean loos, they had hot shower cubicles which were so nice and refreshing. Being an insanely early riser at festivals paid off for me as I was able to walk to the showers at 6:30am and not queue. I’d recommend getting up early if you do want to use the showers as by 7:30am the queue started getting very long and was still long by midday!
If you are looking for something a bit more luxurious, then you can pay to use the luxury facilities provided by When Nature Calls. They provide a luxury toilet experience as well as access to Dyson hairdryers and GHD straighteners and curlers. WNC provide services to other festivals such as SGP and Wilderness too. A pass for their facilities will set you back around £150 for the weekend.
Also on site was an M&S shop and cafe called the Early Risers. This was open from 6am until 8:30pm and sold a range of M&S foods such as fresh fruits and yoghurts, sandwiches and salads, biscuits and crisps as well as M&S soft drinks and tinned cocktails to drink at the campsite. The cafe served all your standard hot drinks, Percy Pig and Colin the Caterpillar slushies as well as bacon rolls and fresh pastries. I really enjoyed getting up early, having a hot shower and then grabbing a flat white and a warm pastry in the morning! It felt so luxurious!
The main arena and other stages
From the campsite to the main arena was 5-10 minutes away. After a quick bag check we were in! There was a really nice woodland walk area which took you around the edge of the main path. This was good when trying to walk back to the camp with the rest of the crowd as it was a quieter detour and the wooden bark meant we weren’t walking through the mud!
Past the woodland walk was The Smokery area which is the first area you walk through to get to the main stage. This Wild West inspired area was home to all the big BBQ joints as well as the Sundown Saloon stage which featured live artists, and tribute acts such as The Dolly Parton Experience and the Birmingham Blues Brothers. We spent our Friday night watching Dolly and it was really great fun!
As you walk further towards the main stage, you come to the Udder Field which is home to The Exchange tent. This was another stage which hosted acts such as Barrioke with Shaun Williamson and the Silent Disco. At one point security at the main stage told us the Example set was postponed due to the incoming weather so we decided to go to Barrioke which was great fun. The Example set did happen so we weren’t too sure what happened there but we were glad we went to Barrioke instead as it was so funny and we got to sing along to all the classics!
To the left of the main arena was The Village Green and Crafty Corner. This area is mainly home to all things food. There were various stalls giving out food samples and selling luxury accessories but main feature was the AO Big Kitchen stage which hosted various talks and demonstrations from chefs and culinary experts throughout the weekend. Next door to this was the M&S Cookery School and Little Cooks tent where you could get more hands on. These sessions as well as the Wineflyer Table Sessions are all pre booked activities so you need to get in quick before coming to the festival to take part in those. As I mentioned before there was also a crafty corner for kids which was completely free and included activities like organic lip balm making. There was also a petting zoo with goats, pigs and rabbits which were so cute!
Back into the main arena and this is where the main stage was along with Alex James’ Cheese Hub. For those of you who don’t know who Alex James is, he is probably most known for being the bass player in the band Blur, but since the turn of the millennium has gone into the cheese making business and now also produces his own alcohol called ‘Britpop’. The Cheese Hub acted as the main bar and DJ area and was one of the main late night stages.
Across from the Cheese Hub was the main stage. We really liked the main stage as it was easy to get in and out if you needed to, with marked walkways making it easy to get about. We managed to get to the front of the stage every day and it was super easy to go to toilet or get a drink and come back to the front again.
Lastly, if you’re looking for something for the little ones, there was an area called the Little Dudes Den, which hosted various activities and food options for kids.
All in all, there was a great mix of stages and things to see and do and definitely something for all ages. We liked that the festival had all the fairground rides favourites like the Waltzers and Dodgems too as these are great fun and all lit up at night, really gave off that traditional festival aesthetic!
The music
The thing that interested me initially about the Big Feastival was its impressive music lineup. After each artist you were left saying “it can’t get better than that surely!” And then it did! In particular, I was feeling certain that Tom Grennan couldn’t possibly go on after the incredible DJ set from Faithless but he absolutely smashed it.
Some of the acts that stood out to us over the weekend were Jake Shears, Mel C, Rick Astley, Faithless, Tom Grennan, Blossoms, and The Cuban Brothers, but everyone was so good and the sound quality from the stages was amazing! Each day they had a celebrity compère (Oti Mabuse, Vernon Kay, and Laura Whitmore) on the main stage who introduced each act and got the crowd going. One thing I noticed was that the festival is a celebrity hotspot and there were loads of recognisable faces in attendance such as James Buckley, Simon Pegg and Ellie Taylor. So definitely a good festival to come to for celebrities spotting and potentially a photo op!
The food at Big Feastival 2023
You can’t go to the Big Feastival and not talk about the food! You can tell it’s a big focus of the festival and the organisers have put a lot of care and attention into picking the best of the best when it comes to food vendors. We didn’t get to sample all the food on sale as there was just too much to choose from! But what we did have was impeccable. Before going to the festival I’d heard of Killa Waffles and Poor Boys and when I saw they were going to be there I knew I had to go there. We shared a Killa Waffle and was glad we did as it was humongous! Whoever thought of putting mac n cheese and chicken tenders in a cheesy waffle cone is a genius! The other vendor I visited was Poor Boys and had the shrimp po boy which was out of this world.
If you have a sweet tooth then there is something for you too from ice-cream to churros and so many brownie and cake stands. I had a strawberry skewer from Chocofruit which was covered in three types of chocolate and a topping of my choosing – so delicious and was exactly the sweet hit I needed!
In conclusion? The food was a really good quality all round and you couldn’t help look at what other people were eating because it all looked so good! Price wise, most meals were £10+ so if you are looking for food on a budget, you may be limited in options. They really took care in to catering for everyone and there were plenty of gluten free, veggie and vegan options as well as wide variety of foods for all tastes.
When it comes to drink, there was plenty of options from the Cheese Hub bar to the Chandon spritz bar. We aren’t huge drinkers but did enjoy a pint or two of the Britpop cider which was £6 a pint, so about normal for a festival. The prices did vary depending on the bar and drink but everything seemed reasonable in price and similar to other festivals.
Overall conclusion – we love the Big Feastival!
We really enjoyed our time at Big Feastival. If you like good music, big headliners, amazing food, mixing with celebs and doing something the kids can enjoy too then this is definitely a festival for you.
Everyone was super friendly, having fun and in high spirits. It was so nice to experience a smaller festival and I’d definitely go back again!
Tickets for the Big Feastival tend to sell out fairly quickly, however some weekend (no camping) tickets were still available to purchase up until the festival opening in 2023. A camping ticket costs around £230 which includes access to the festival and camping from Friday-Monday. If you want to camp for longer, you can purchase a Thursday entry ticket for an additional cost. If you don’t want to camp you can buy just a weekend ticket or a day ticket, so there are options to suit everybody!
