We attended Camp Bestival for the first time this year and I would honestly recommend it to anyone. Especially those with young children. I haven’t stopped talking about it since we got home. It was our first festival experience with children and there was so much there for them, all included in the cost of your ticket. We like to “get a good deal” and Camp Bestival was a brilliant example of this. There were things that you could pay extra for which I’ll mention within the post but these things just add to your experience, rather than being necessary.
We’e been on quite a strict budget this year and as a family we spent £2.50 whilst at the festival so I wanted to write this post to help you do that too. Showing you how to get the most out of your Camp Bestival Ticket.
Camp Bestival Early Bird Tickets
Early Bird tickets are now on sale for Camp Bestival and under 5s are FREE meaning a family of 4 can attend for £420. The ticket prices include entry and general camping and are available here. There are also pay monthly plans available meaning you can stretch your payments across a full year ready for Camp Bestival 2026.
At the time of editing, Early Bird Tickets are no longer available but Tier 2 tickets are available and under 5s are still free, a family of 4 is currently £464 (with 2 children under 5, children aged 5-9 are £111).
There are alternative pitches such as Camp Plus and Backstage but we just had General Camping and this is what we’d do if we went again.
Free Play Areas at Camp Bestival
Make the most of all of the free play areas, parks and soft play. There are mud kitchens, a soft play with ball pit, sand pits, board games, toy and board game demonstrations and so much more dotted around the festival. I still don’t think we did everything in the 4 days that we were there. My two especially loved the Vintage Board Games and the toys in the Moose Toys zone.
Circus Skills at Camp Bestival
As well as the parks and play areas there were multiple opportunities for circus skills around Camp Bestival. About 3 different zones with things like unicycles, hula hoops, diablos, juggling balls and more. We spent a lot of time at these zones throughout the weekend. Sam was adamant to learn to ride a unicycle and juggle with clubs, neither of which he learned to do! I enjoyed messing around with the diablo and spinning plates.
Crafts at Camp Bestival
There are soooooo many FREE crafts and activities at Camp Bestival, no basic crafts either. My two did screen printing, cress planting, pirate hat making, badge making and more. There are extra crafts that you can pay from £15 for but my two were happy enough with the free activities throughout the weekend.
Cbeebies at Camp Bestival
The CBeebies tent had lots going on throughout the weekend. All free/included in the cost of your ticket. You could meet your favourites such as Bluey and Dougie or have a story read to you by special guests throughout the day and into the evening. Arthur was starstruck meeting George and Nigel “from the TV”.
The Kids Extra Pass at Camp Bestival
This year was the first year that the Kids Extra Pass was available. This included a prepaid daily lunch, dinner and sweet treat throughout the weekend. This is purchased at the time of your ticket and costs just under £50 for six children’s meals and three sweat treats. Lunch was a sandwich, snacks and drink and dinner was any of the £6 kids portions. Sweet treats included candy floss, ice cream and churros.
£6 Kids Portions
Another new addition to this years’ Camp Bestival is the £6 kids meals at various food vendors around the festival. These varied in size and in some cases were big enough for 2 children to share or an adult to have as a lunch. It’s also a good way to try the different food offerings as you can get a few to share from different places.
Cookery and baking classes at Camp Bestival
We took part in a few different free cookery classes at the Earth’s Crust Bakery Stage. We did bread making, sauce making and were even given a sourdough starter to take home with us. They had loads of activities for children such as colouring, stickers and cress pot decorating/planting meaning we could actually listen to the presentations.
Performances at Camp Bestival
An obvious one would be to make the most of the stage performances whilst at Camp Bestival. This year we saw Sugababes, Basement Jaxx and Tom Jones and my boys loved watching Blippi and Mr. Tumble. I enjoyed Dick and Dom and also throughly enjoyed James B Partridge and his “Primary School Bangers”. Another one my boys enjoyed was the Silly Science Workshops shows and activities such as Slime Making. The Firework and Light display at the end of Camp Bestival was spectacular.
Skatepark and Sports Park
There was a full size skate ramp which was free to use incl. hire of helmets and boards.
More at Camp Bestival
This is just a few of our favourites at Camp Bestival but there is so much more. £420 for 4 nights away as a family of 4, including all of your activities is a brilliant price. We were never short of something to do, never bored, and never felt like we needed to spend money unnecessarily. Did you go to Camp Bestival this year? Are you considering it for next year? This is the link for tickets again.