Camp Bestival

The House of Fairy Tales transformed a field next to the Magic Meadow into a surreal parallel world where all things were possible and nothing was first as it seemed.

Children and young people were invited inside The Museum of Lost Stories, a converted vintage horse box, where they were able to rummage through the museum’s collection of magical objects – each one an artefact from a story whose tale has been lost. Children were asked to find new stories for these objects by weaving their own tales around them. Workshops were lead by HoFT Storytelling Curator, Rachel Newsome and writer Betsy de Lotbiniere. Children also had the opportunity to make puppets of their stories’ characters with Lord Whitney & Tallulah Swirls. They were also able to act out their stories as a play with Robin and Partridge.

You could reveal your deepest thoughts and draw from memory in the Dreams and Nightmares Cave with our expert dream analysts Kate Walters & Sophie Windsor Clive, turning these glorious or nightmarish ideas into fantastical figures on the Clay Story Mountain.

These stories could then be told to a proper audience in the Grandmother's Bed storytelling tent. Here, professional storytellers, Rachel Rose Reid and Sara Hurley guided our young storytellers and wove magical tales of mystery and moonlight. Charlie Dark read from a specially written story for the festival, The King of Haiku, alongside running his unique School of Dark workshops where no one is ever given homework. Author Simmone Howell read from her moving teen novels, Notes From The Underground and Everything Beautiful.  Writers Jessica Brinton, Margot Bowman and Nathalie Olah ran the HOFT Examiner fanzine making workshops. Author, Mark Cairns read from his jazz age mystery novel The Glass Trumpet, alongside a selection of vintage childhood tales.

Elsewhere, The House of Fairy Tales Poet In Residence, Sally Crabtree added new poems to her Poetree, inviting guests to lie on her chaise longue as she serenaded them and collaborated with children and families to write their own poems and songs, which she then performed.

Meanwhile, The Exploricators took children and young people on HoFT Dèrives, exploratory adventures around the site using maps following the flight paths of starlings, labyrinths and the constellations of the stars. The illustrations and stories from their derive-adventures were added to a living wall gallery, which grew organically over the weekend. This element has been made possible through the support of Victorinox for the first time this year.

On the HoFT Stage, Charlie Higson, the children’s writer and author of the mega-selling Young Bond series read from one of his favourite horror stories.

You could play an orchestra like an instrument with the unique and extraordinary Minds Ear Project, with the audience taking turns to conduct and compose in Chopin's Salon while Tim Flitcroft had children strumming 10 Ukuleles at once! The Ice Cold Idiots and Teenbop bands kept the HOFT stage pulsing throughout the day.

If you wanted to disappear from the crowd then you could creep into the Camouflage tent and learn some chameleon like tricks with master of disguise Stephen Whitehead and his invisible crew. However, if you wanted to stand out in the crowd then you could come and be transformed in Navarac, the mirrored caravan where an unpainted face is a naked face. With an extraordinary Painted Face you could pose and be photographed in the Mighty Booth.

Sculptor Ian Dawson inspired new ideas about maths and the universe in his Spirograph and Hula Hoop workshop in the Heath Robinson tent where you could also dress up as a giant cardboard robot with the BoxBot team or experiment with Jim Bond's drawing machines.

Transportation to another world through storytelling, theatre and workshops inspired by food in folklore, myths and legends occurred in our Giants Kitchen thanks to the support of our fantastic sponsors, Kenwood DeLonghi.

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At Camp Bestival we will have our