CarFest is a bumper family weekend out, with music, cars, and something to do for everyone

Carfest North 2016

Friday 29th to Sunday 31st July 2016
Bolesworth Castle, Tattenhall, Chester, Cheshire, CH3 9HQ, England MAP
£151 with camping, child £37 - sold out, some options available

Daily capacity: 5,000

Last updated: Fri 22nd Jul 2016

Chris Evans's brainchild CarFest guarantees there'll be an exciting line up of cars and action. Watching drivers perform stunts, burn outs, wheel spins, and seeing glorious Club Car displays, from Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, Morgan's and Porsches. It's a petrol heads dream..

And that's not all, the music will be as amazing as the cars, with top music acts headlining such as Bryan Adams, The Corrs, Texas, Faithless, Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott (from the Beautiful South),KT Tunstall, Travis, and Seal. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is no such thing as going hungry or thirsty at CarFest either, as foodies are catered for with the CarFest Roast Fest, the Cooking Theatre, the Cake Sale the list is endless.

It's a three day extravaganza, a plethora of events Friday to Sunday. This year sees the festival move from Oulton park, which was CarFest's home for the last couple of years, to a new venue Bolesworth Castle in Cheshire which is idyllic, and it gives the festival a fresh vibe, we thought it would be nice to compare the two venues.

Since 2012 CarFest has raised in the region of £6 Million for BBC Children in Need and it's entertained over 300,000 festival-goers, 2016 looks to be bigger and better than before, so only time will tell.

Traditionally Chris Evans showcases his fabulous collection of cars around the track, with the 'Track Sprint', his famous five, including his astounding LeFerrari, which is Ferrari's first hybrid car boasting 210mph+ and worth £1 Million Pounds.

Other attractions/events we looked forward to over the weekend included 'Sporting Bears' this is where visitors to CarFest can have a chance at riding in one of the finest cars, as a passenger of course, and for a nominal fee.

Then there was the 'Time Tunnel', a new attraction for this year, which showcased 40 of the most unique cars covering automotive history such as Bugatti's, Jaguars, Bentley's etc.,

For sports enthusiasts mad about car's a couple of events sprint to mind, a petrol heads dream some would say, 'CarFest Motor Sport', which features true motorsport icons from rallying and racing. Michael Schumacher's F1 Benetton car, NASCAR V8's and a few Formula 5000 cars took pride of place. There's also another new addition to the CarFest programme with the 'Top Gear Magazine Performance Grid', this will enabled visitors to get up close and personal to some of the hottest cars on the planet.

The three days we have at the event were jam packed full of action, cars, food, drinking and music. And we have our 15 year old nephew, Oliver, in tow for his first CarFest, he thought the whole idea of the festival was 'Sick', a was in his element.

The weather for the whole three days was astounding, only a few spots of rain on day three (Sunday) and we now have lovely glowing tans.

Faithless: Carfest North 2016

The emphasis of the festival is to raise money for Children in Need and they really did themselves proud, it was the biggest CarFest to date, the line-up over the weekend was quite strong with Faithless, and Kaiser Chiefs headlining the Saturday and Bryan Adams on the Sunday. The music was a strange mix of 80's music, and up to date with Jamie Lawson, and KT Tunstall examples of the latter.

The highlight for our nephew was the cars, he was in awe, especially the Red Bull Team and all the screeching. He loved it and was quite happy to stand there for two hours each day watching the cars speed down the strip. He loved the paddock where he could look up close and personal at all the cars, even Chris Evan's lush beasts.

The venue is absolutely idyllic, Bolesworth is lush, is the middle of nowhere, a quaint country house and an awesome back drop to the music stages.

Cakes, sandwiches, alcohol, every morsel of food you can imagine was available. The only negative point was it was slightly overpriced, £7 for haddock and chips, which was unfortunately cooked to death, even much so I choked on the chips cause they were so dry! And yet the burritos were absolutely to die for, so if ever you go be careful what you choose to eat.

Other than flitting from the music arena and the racing strip for the cars, we looked round all the craft stalls, food stalls, had a quick peek at the showground and visited the food fair, where we were delighted to have seem a demonstration by Tom Kerridge and the amazing Rachel Allen, both shows were packed to the rafters.

This is really the festival for everyone, it's the most family orientated festival we've been too, other than Isle of Wight.

Music over the three days kept us busy, the good thing about CarFest is the main stage is two adjoining stages for ease of a quick turnaround, this is amazing cause the music is a continuous thing then.

Texas opened proceedings on a sunny Friday afternoon and it was an absolutely stonking set, 45 minutes of hit after hit and Spiteri did Texas proud.

Only 7/8 bands per day, all giving their time for free for the cause. Friday saw The Lionels, Travis, ABC, Kim Wilde, Faithless, and a strange choice we felt Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott.

Travis: Carfest North 2016

Travis were amazing, never thought I'd be saying that, but band of the day were Faithless. They blew the audience away, 40,000 people watched the set, luckily we were at the front bouncing around, our Nephew thought it was 'sick', he said when he got home he was gonna download some of their albums, it was good musical education for him, he can teach his dad a thing or too.

We were treated to Faithless classics and the audience loved it, it was so good the pit at the front of the stage was absolutely jammed with VIP's watching the set.

Saturday was again more of the same, lush weather, just T-shirts, no coats, it was amazing. Again 8 bands on the main stage, our nephew was as happy as a pig in the proverbial again watching all the supercars, videoing what he could so he could show his dad what he missed when he got back home.

Maxi Jazz was on stage again with his own band, Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys, looking very dapper in his suit and seriously giving it some on his guitar. Proceedings were licked off today by the most famous Brass Band, The Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band,, it was a lush sound.

Covers band Who's next?, obviously a Who tribute act, were up next. The band I wanted to see all weekend 'The Corrs' were absolutely amazing, again a 45 minute set full of stonkers, 'Radio', 'Runaway', 'Dreams', 'I Never Loved You Anyway'', 'So Young', 'Breathless' and an encore of 'Only When You Sleep', there were few instrumentals and a few new tunes thrown in for good measure, I was in my absolute element.

Other acts that night were The Proclaimers and headliners Kaiser Chiefs, but the two acts that stole the show for me were James Morrison, and KT Tunstall.

I've never seen James Morrison live so this was a first for me, he was absolutely epic, he wowed the crowd, looking smokingly hot in his sunnies and leather., Can't believe he's been around for over a decade. He was fresh and a breath of fresh air.

KT Tunstall was amazing, loved the glittery gold trousers, she sang her heart out throughout the 45 min set. We were all three in ore, I was amazed our nephew was singing along, I'm so glad she's back on the scene, can't wait for her new album to hit the shops or the net., its been too long.

Sunday's line up was rather strange and probably the weakest day of the three with Squeeze, Jamie Lawson, Billy Ocean, an acoustic session of local musicians, Seal, The Feeling, and Bryan Adams.

Highlight of the day for me was Billy Ocean, he can show he's still got it at the tender age of 66, what a crooner, I loved all the classics, 'When the Going Gets Tough', 'Carribean Queen', 'Get Outta My Dreams', 'Love Really Hurts Without You', it was like a step back in time in the Delorean.

The whole three days was immense, a bumper family weekend out, something to do for everyone, caters for all ages, from little toddlers to grown ups. If you fancy a family friendly festival and to raise money for a good cause this is for you.

We've been twice now and had a whale of a time.