A restful festival – we try out luxury festival camping

Boutique festival camping specialists Yurtel find a winning formula for flakey festival-goers

bunting, bubbly and bedouin tents, Boutique festival camping is here

By Alexandra Tilley Loughrey

Sept 2013

As a youngster, I used to love a good festival. Camping in
close proximity to thousands of other noisy revellers was a rite of passage,
and a lot of fun. Comfort, personal space and a good night’s sleep were just
not that important when there was partying to be done.

Now, as a mother of two young children, I still like the
idea of a good festival. But my priorities have changed. I now need
‘comfortable & civilised’ rather than ‘rock & roll’.

Don’t get me wrong – as a family, we love camping and have
embraced all that it has to offer, from pitching in a farmers’ field with no
showers, to glamping it up in geodesic domes and treehouses. But it’s a
completely different thing taking the kids to a busy, hectic festival
environment, so I was excited to hear about ‘Yurtel’, a super-luxury pop-up
campsite that now appears at most of the UK’s best festivals. It describes
itself as a ‘luxurious and sophisticated festival camping experience’ and
boasts an assortment of accommodation including yurts, bell tents and Bedouins.
This, I thought, would be the way to gently introduce my young family to
festival life – and off we went to The Big Feastival, the Alex James/Jamie Oliver
food-and-music-fest in the Cotswolds.

From the moment we checked into the dedicated Yurtel
reception (complete with complimentary newspapers, bar, chill-out area,
umbrellas) the experience was brilliantly boutique, laid back, happy and
nothing was too much trouble. We were given a glass of prosecco each and the
kids had a freshly-mixed fruit cocktail. This gave them ideas above their
station and, as soon as my son clocked the golf buggy, he was determined to be
chauffeured in and out of the Feastival site as many times as possible. The
dedicated Yurtel field was green and spacious – more reminiscent of a
civilised Sultan’s camp than the chaos of crossed guy-ropes in a regular
festival camp-field.

The wasp that had so rudely followed us into the yurt didn’t
get a look-in at the Green & Blacks chocolates delicately placed on our
pillows, as the kids ripped them open, and scoffed the lot. They then proceeded
to tuck the Yurtel-branded eye-masks and ear-plugs under their pillows, stuffed
a wind-up torch in each of their back-packs and set off to chill-out in the
cinema tent – a Bedouin affair with scatter pillows aplenty.

We didn’t have any rain, but I still felt mildly smug at
being ensconced in this cosy, clean and civilised retreat as I drifted back,
momentarily, to festivals of old: soaked to the skin, queueing cross-legged for a barely-usable loo, with a hot-shower but a distant dream. By contrast, here I was staying in a sanctuary – a
pristine “tent” with a lockable door and not only space to stow my clothes, but
a bedside light and a plug socket to charge my phone.

In the morning, I was able to saunter over to the edge of the
field, just metres from the tent, and step into a lovely hot shower to beautify in
total peace and privacy. And had I been so inclined, I could have stepped into
the ‘Boufantery’, to primp and crimp my hair to my heart’s desire in front of a
huge gilt mirror.

Of course, ‘civilised’ is a relative term in the camping
world. Just because you’re sleeping in a king-size bed with crisply laundered
white linen and fresh flowers on your bedside table (oh yes), doesn’t mean that
you won’t hear the sounds of fellow glampers. I was awoken to the sound of a nearby
parent ‘whispering’ loudly through gritted teeth, suggesting that their off-spring
might like to “BE QUIET” and go back to sleep. I must admit to slightly
regretting the previous evening’s nightcap by the campfire at this particular stage
in the early morning. But I grabbed a pair of ear-plugs, snuggled back into my
feather pillow and waited for my husband to bring me a cup of tea and a freshly
baked pain au raisin, safe in the knowledge that my kids were nestled happily
in the cinema tent, watching Despicable Me for the 10th time.

If it wasn’t for the Aperol spritzers the night before, I’d no
doubt have felt as refreshed as staying in a boutique hotel. Maybe there is
still a bit of rock & roll in me after all!

Yurtel will be at
various UK festivals during 2014, including Glastonbury, Bestival, Latitude and
V Festival. Prices for up to 2
adults and 2 kids for the duration of the festival (three to four nights depending on where
you are) range from £400 for a baby-bell tent, to a yurt at £1350. Facilities at most
festivals include a dedicated indoor and outdoor chill-out area, a cinema tent,
a sit-down restaurant, and a spa with bookable treatments.

www.yurtel.co.uk