How to create a festival in your own back garden (without spending a fortune)
Around Rob’s career as a Radio 1 DJ, he and his wife founded the music festival Bestival in 2004. After winning various awards, the couple followed it up with Camp Bestival, a “little sister” to the main event designed specifically for families with children.
“It was Josie’s idea,” confesses Rob. “Since we were about to have kids ourselves, she thought we should look at doing a festival which was a bit more family friendly. We wanted to create a place where there’s something for all the family, from two-week-old babies through to grandparents. It’s like a huge adventure park for families.”
Now, the Da Bank family are hoping to bring the festival vibes into homes with the launch of Camp Bestival at Home, a new book written in collaboration with the artists, performers, cooks, makers and workshop leaders who’ve made Camp Bestival a firm favourite among festival-loving families.
The book contains plenty of tips and tricks from fellow festival lovers: Fearne Cotton offers a section on how to host events without stressing yourself out, Jo Whiley explains the basics of parenting at festivals, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor advises on hosting the ultimate kitchen disco. But beyond the celebrities, there are recipes, crafting activities, and guides on dressing up, doing face-paint, becoming a barbecue king, and even breaking into the music business.
In short, for anyone planning to host a big, all-ages garden party this summer, or at any other time of the year, here’s your guide.
“Screen-time, phones, tablets and iPads have taken the forefront in everyone’s homes,” explains Josie, an illustrator and mum to the four da Bank boys. “We wanted to remind people that you can still make, create, play, forage, stargaze and connect with nature on a regular basis. You don’t have to wait for a festival to have all that kind of fun.”
So what is the secret for stressed-out parents and grandparents who have no idea how to relate to young people who’ve grown up in the digital world?
“Keep it simple, don’t spend hours and days planning something, because if it goes down like a lead balloon, it’ll totally deflate you,” says Rob, with a laugh which belies his experience on the matter. “Often a piece of string and a toilet roll craft project, or a little walk down the road, might be better ideas than planning a big day out with loads of complicated angles to it.”
The truth is that all kids really want from their family members is a bit of attention, thinks Josie. “Some people might look at the book and think it’s a bit simple, but it’s the simple stuff that works,” she explains. “There are some things in the book like family yoga, s’mores [roasted marshmallows], lighting a simple fire in the garden – kids love these things because they’re just a bit out of the ordinary. It’s about stepping out of your comfort zone and getting the kids doing stuff that they wouldn’t normally do.”
Another focus for the book is the cost of living crisis. The da Banks are well aware that for plenty of families, festival tickets and expensive entertainment feel increasingly out of reach, so they hope their book will provide a guide to creating treasured moments that don’t cost the earth.
“Rob’s mum would play hide-and-seek relentlessly with all our children, they’d go to visit their grandparents and play cards or dominoes or tiddly-winks,” Josie enthuses. “Once, one of our sons came home and proudly told us, ‘I’ve found this brilliant new game called Connect Four’. It’s things like that that really count.”
So what are the Camp Bestival top tips to create a back garden festival this summer?
“Start with the music,” says Rob. “People want things they can sing along to, the pop and mainstream stuff, but they also like it when you share things with them that they don’t know. Take a risk, put on something old, or something that’s a guilty pleasure. There are a thousand vanilla playlists on Spotify, it just takes a slight amount of daring to create one which is really memorable.”
Then it’s all about going as big as you can with the decorations. Get the Christmas tinsel and fairy lights out of the loft, make paper chains, and put out your most colourful blankets and table dressings. “It instantly puts you in a good mood if you’re surrounded by light and colour; it softens you and makes it easier to have fun,” says Josie.
You could even extend the decoration to your guests. “We always ask our audiences to wear some fancy dress on a theme – fairy tales, medieval, space, around the world . If you make someone dress up, they take on a different persona and personality, and children love to see their parents cutting loose and behaving differently, I find,” Josie adds.
And if the Great British weather doesn’t play ball? “Keep calm and carry on, no one wants to look like a wuss in front of their children,” laughs Rob.
Ultimately, the da Banks hope Camp Bestival at Home will find itself in homes, torn apart, annotated, dropped in the mud, covered in sticky fingerprints; in short, used. “I hate the idea of it being a book that lives on a shelf forever,” says Rob. “It’s an almanack for families to take with them through the year and I really hope they squeeze everything out of it they can.”
How to make the festival vibes at home according to the Camp Bestival experts
How to recreate festival make-up
by Isadora of performance company Cirque Bijou
Kit bag
Foundation
Blending sponge (if you have one)
Eyeshadow palette
Eyeshadow blending brush (one with a stiffer end to apply colour and a softer end to blend)
Eyeliner
Eyelash curler (if you have one)
Mascara
Blusher
Vaseline
Angled brush
Face-paint in one colour (we use Snazaroo)
Cotton bud
Glitter
Neutral-coloured lip gloss
1. Moisturise and apply a light base of skin-coloured foundation to your entire face using a blending sponge (if you have one), taking care to blend it evenly around the eye creases.
2. Using an eyeshadow blending brush, load the stiffer end with your chosen colour (we used red) and apply shadow from your upper lash line to the eye socket crease. Then use the softer end to blend it around the eye socket crease.
3. Load a pearlised version of your main eyeshadow colour onto a small, stiff brush. You can use two tones of any colour, e.g. blue and pearlised blue, or green and pearlised green. Pat this colour around the tear duct in a V shape and continue out towards the corner of each eye. This gives depth. Now apply a bit of this colour to your lower lash line, going from the outer corner towards the tear duct.
4. With a fine eyeliner, draw along your upper lash line, starting from above your pupil and moving outward, finishing with a flick out towards your eyebrow.
5. Use an eyelash curler (if you have one) to curl your lashes, then apply mascara.
6. With an angled brush, using a creamy blusher or powder, draw a crescent shape from the top of your brow to your cheekbones.
7. Enhance your eyebrows using a small amount of eyeshadow in a shade that matches them, and set with a slick of Vaseline.
8. If you would like to draw circus “diamonds” get an angled brush, wet it, and load it with face paint in any colour you like. Draw outlines of the triangles first – one pointing up, and one pointing down. Fill them in and add dots if you wish. You don’t have to have symmetry. One big triangle and one small one is OK. If you prefer symmetry, start small so you can adjust them to match if needed.
9. If you would like to add glitter, dot Vaseline on the area where you wish to apply it, using a cotton bud, then apply the glitter with your fingers or a sponge applicator.
10. Add a neutral lip gloss that won’t fight with the eye colour.
11. Et voilá! You are ready for your performance.
How to make a festival hedgerow headdress
by Jenny from woodland venue Spinney Hollow
You will need
2x 50cm willow wands
Responsibly sourced foliage (from your own garden, a friend or neighbour’s garden *with permission!) or foraged sparingly, taking only a bit from each plant)
1. Bruise or massage the willow wands by gently bending sequential sections of each wand from one end to the other. This makes the wands more supple and less likely to snap, so they are easier to manipulate into a circle.
2. Once soft, twist the two wands together along their full length. It may help to place something on one end of the wands so both your hands are free to twist. Tie into a granny knot.
3. Put the hoop on your head (as you’d like to wear it), and then put your hand inside the loop so that you have a gap of about an inch. You need the hoop to be slightly too big, because the foliage will make it smaller. When you’re happy with the size, twist any excess bits of willow around the hoop.
4. Select your base foliage. Long, leafy lengths are best. Tuck the thick ends between the willow twists (you may need to open the weave slightly). Wrap the lengths around the hoop and secure the other end into the hoop in the same way, or wrap it around, depending on the foliage type. Repeat and build up with a variety of types of foliage.
5. Keep trying on the headdress to check the size and fit; use your hands to keep shaping it to your head and to encourage softness.
6. Natural imperfections are good, as is some asymmetry. Try building up one area more than others, or introducing a pop of colour, dried flowers, or a feather for a point of interest.
Make your own DIY juggling balls
by Lucas Jet from circus tent supplier Bigtopmania
You will need
Three sandwich bags
Three cups of rice
Nine balloons (ideally three of one colour and six of another)
1. Measure one cup of rice into each of the sandwich bags. Twist the top of each one and fold the excess back down around the rice.
2. Snip the end off one of the balloons and place a rice bag inside it.
3. Take a second balloon of the same colour and snip off the end. Put the rice bag in a balloon into this second balloon from the other direction, so that the “open” end goes in first and covers the hole.
4. Take a different-coloured balloon. Snip off the end and cut three circular holes in the balloon at random places.
5. Stretch this over the double-bagged rice ball. This should give you a multi-coloured juggling ball.
6. Repeat these steps twice, so you have three juggling balls.
How to juggle
Throw one ball from your left hand to your right hand in a rainbow shaped arch that peaks at head height. Practise throwing it back and forth, left to right and right to left.
Take one ball in each hand. Throw the first ball, and when it reaches that central head height, throw the second ball in the opposite direction, so that you catch each ball in the opposite hand to the one with which you threw it.
Place two balls in your dominant hand (i.e. if you are right-handed, place two balls in your right hand.) Place the third ball in your other hand. Throw one ball from the dominant hand and, when it is at head height, throw the ball in the other hand in the other direction (and catch the first ball). When the second ball is at head height, throw the third ball. And repear.
How to host the ultimate kitchen disco
by singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor
You kinda know what makes the right disco for you. It’s about the tunes you love – the music you and your family respond to. It’s about what makes you feel better. Once you’ve got that, just change little things – like the lighting, for starters! Set the mood.
We spend pretty much all our time in the kitchen. We’ve got a few neon signs, a big disco light, a smoke machine and a disco ball. All these things were already in our kitchen before the pandemic came along. Maybe this shows you what kind of family we are.
Let the kids lead it - that’s a good way to start. They’ll have lots of songs they love, so let them choose, and let them play the music louder than normal. Don’t feel you need to be expert singers or dancers. Even if you’re the new Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, your kids are not gonna mind what you’re doing – they probably won’t even be watching. So just go for it. All they will notice is the fact you’re having a nice time – and they’ll love the fact that you are.
If I’m ever feeling a bit down, I’ll spend half an hour just getting some tunes on. My kids might eye-roll at first, but we’ll have fun. Laughing, doing funny dancing and singing songs you love as a family is such a good way to destress. It just never fails. Try it!
Extracted from Camp Bestival at Home by Josie & Rob da Bank (Ebury Press, £20)
