festivalhair — Blog — Our Little Gang

Another post for fellow list-lovers.. when I was pregnant last year we accepted that Glastonbury this year was probably going to be too much of a push with everything else going on. In hindsight we probably could have managed to go.. but never mind, we'll just have to be at the next one to make up for it.. Instead we booked tickets to Deershed festival, designed for families and only 25 minutes down the road. Two nights camping, family facilities for babies and easy to nip out if we'd forgotten anything.

I love a list, and we used pretty much everything on here for the two nights and three days we were camping. The MAM baby bottles really are amazing for travelling as they self-sterilise in a microwave, and the cheap as chips baby camping travel cot with insect netting was perfect and Sylvie slept in it brilliantly.

We'd been planning on buying a 'proper' tent (i.e. Not just a festival throw-away one and not one from China that doesn't stay up à la Glasto 2015..) for a while now and we ended up choosing a tunnel tent with a bedroom at each end.

We also decided not to take a stove this time and just be a bit lazy - we thought camping for the first time with the baby would be enough to think about - we took wrapped breakfast food like brioches, croissants and fruit.

The whole weekend went really well, it chucked it down a few times but Viv wasn't fazed and Sylvie was well covered in the buggy; our washing machine broke on our return which was perfect timing with four loads of muddy washing ready to go in but I guess you can't have it all, can you?

So! Here's my list for camping with a child and a baby..

- Tent
- Inflatable beds (we found some double air beds for £10 each in Aldi.. I only went in for some milk..) and a foot pump
- Sleeping bags and a good few extra blankets.
- Camping travel cot. I'll put a picture of what I bought at the end of the post, it was less than £15 and was 'pop up', and comes flat packed in its own bag.
- Baby sleeping bag. We have a great GroBag one which opens in the middle to allow for buggy straps so Sylvie could wear it when we were out on the evening.
- Clothes, waterproofs and wellies for everyone. We allowed a few extra outfits for mud and lots of layers for day to evening. We also took trainers and flip flops as well as wellies.
- Sun cream, hats and sunglasses
- Warm PJs and socks and jumpers for bed too.
- The buggy and the rain cover. We also took two small umbrellas which we used a lot walking between areas.
- Picnic blanket with waterproof back.
- Camping chairs
- A doormat for taking wellies and shoes off at the tent entrance.
- Towels
- Washing up bowl, soap and scrubbers
- Hand sanitiser and surface wipes
- Bin bags and carrier bags
- Food. We took a crate of water, individually wrapped brioches and croissants, crisps, sweets, fruit, we made up some sandwiches for the first day, some drinks for me and David and baby food and milk.
- A full baby bag with nappies, sacks, feeding spoons, bibs and muslins, bottles, Milton sterilising wipes, extra clothes, a few toys, calpol, sun hat and extra socks and blankets for Sylvie.
- Toiletries including toothbrushes, deoderant, make up, hair spray and dry shampoo, hair gel, hair brush, make up wipes.
- Lanterns and extra batteries. Again, a lucky Aldi purchase.
- Glitter and coloured hairspray for Viv (she had som very specific festival hair ideas..)
- Pillows (we gave Vivienne a dark pillow case because of the aforementioned coloured hairspray..)
- Extra tissues and loo roll
- A few activities like books and pens for Vivienne
- Cash
- Some basic medicine and first aid kit
- Camera and spare cards and batteries
- ID wrist tag for Vivienne which we filled out with our numbers and names
- Ear protectors for Sylvie
- Phone chargers and power banks