Escot Park opens early for Beautiful Days revellers

Our 6th Beautiful Days festival, and after a bit of a soggy journey down to Devon we arrived at Escot Park, for the first time ever, on a Thursday evening, as they'd opened the gates for weekend ticket holders to camp for the evening; which appealed to a lot more people than I expected, the family camping area was already heaving with tents and there was a great buzz about the place already.

We found our spot right under a circle of Redwood trees, next to the beautifully carved benches and chairs which hosted late evening children's story-telling and early morning Tai-Chi throughout the weekend. It seemed to be a firm favourite play area for a lot of the children camped nearby already.

There was no music on for us, but we could still go into the festival site, so we had a walk through the family camping area for a look around and to meet up with some friends.

We were really treated in the campsite this year, apart from there being more camping space, we had our usual 24-hour cafe, Fudge stall and children’s play area and this year the Dirty Davey stage and shops selling camping essentials and non-essentials, and a cut-throat barbers. The Red Tea Bus was also camped in close proximity for breakfast, afternoon tea or late night sugar fixes.

People were really making the most of a dry evening and the arena was filled with a fun, relaxed atmosphere. The bars and shops were open, so there were plenty of early revellers just checking the place out, enjoying a beer or two, and warming up for the weekend.

We were meeting up with friends camped in the Disabled Camping area, so we headed over for a party through the Big Top area, but we had to stop and have a good look at all the amazing sculptures; carved wooden mushrooms, a huge wooden table and chairs, a giant metal hare (with monkey rider) and some amazing wicker foxes playing instruments right in the middle of the arena.

Thick woolly jumpers and socks came in very handy as it was such a clear night it did get very cold, so we retired back to the tent early and huddled up, excited to have an even better look around tomorrow.

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