How to Organise a Glamping Festival in Two Months....

"Oooh, wouldn't it be lovely for all glawning owners to have a big meet up with their glawnings."  So many lovely customers have uttered these words to us that we felt it was high time we organised such a gathering.  Putting our glawning world domination hats to one side we embarked into a new world of 'Event Management', knowing from the get go that any gathering organised by the glawning team would never be a mere gathering...it would have to be A GLATHERING. Luxury bell tent awning owners and their friends and families were going to get the glamorous treatment they deserved at our hands.  And so began the organisation for 'Glampfest 2017, a festival to celebrate all things glamping and because we were in charge, a similar scenario to planning our wedding ensued...we could tailor everything to create the best festival EVER.

With just a few months to go (because we'd been so busy selling glawnings) we hired a campsite from a friend and sat down to have a long hard think about the things we loved (and hated) about festivals we'd attended ourselves.  There were more than a few priorities on our list which comprised of the following:

• Dirt cheap booze served from a cool bar! (when did £6 per pint become acceptable anyway?!)
• A touch of class in the portaloos (some dry shampoo ladies?  A little spray of Lynx, gents? All available for your convenience!)
• A warm welcome with a fabulous goodie bag (just what the doctor ordered after any journey in a campervan)
• Do some fundraising (a wonderful charity raffle table and collections raised a nice donation for the Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity)
• Great food included in your ticket price (No one need think about cooking OR paying £10 for a wood fired pizza!)
• Tried and tested local bands and up and coming new talent (these guys are all going places - and you saw them here first)
• Welcome those pooches (pretty much everyone we know has a dog so who are we to ban them?!)
• Classy decorated marquee with comfy beanbags for lounging around (it's all about the comfort)
• And, most importantly, a DAD DANCING COMPETITION.

So, we created a website, booked music artists, gave out flyers, sorted power/lighting/stage, organised a friend to do a big BBQ, hired a fish and chip van, asked our placement students to run the bar, did multiple trips to Bookers, chose a charity, sourced raffle prizes, hired utilities, went on first aid courses, spent hours setting up and decorating marquees/glawnings, had sleepless nights, filled numerous goodie bags etc etc.  When I say 'we'...a big shout out is due to our director James Martin who did most of this list singlehandedly.  

Despite the weather being rather woeful it turns out we can put on a pretty darn good festival and attendees have been raving about it ever since.  It was a memorable sight to witness so many glawnings coming together and forming a little community for the weekend.  The sun did shine at times, BFFs were made,  dad dancing moves occurred that can never be forgotten.

Here are some actual words from the horses mouths/feedback forms:

"Loved it", "It was perfect", "Great value", "Thank you for a great weekend", "Great family atmosphere", "Loved the live music and all the extra touches", "Fab organisation, great vibe, food and entertainment were ace, the whole event was lovely", "We met lots of lovely people", "Venue, music and food were fantastic: loved it all", "Best camping toilets we've ever seen", "Brilliant music", "Friendly staff," "Great to see other peoples glawnings", "High class feel - you know when you've been glamping," "Quality loo roll in the cleanest portaloos ever known", "Great choice at the bar", "Laid back chilled atmosphere," "the ambience", "We felt spoilt - the ticket price was more than fair, in fact, I feel like we robbed you",  "Big thanks for a top weekend", the list of compliments goes on and on.

So, despite the massive undertaking that Glampfest became and the general last-minute-near-nervous-breakdown-stress of event organising it's not a festival that we can ever stop doing because it ended up being so flipping brilliant. 

So here's where you can get your tickets for the next one. See you at the bar!

You're welcome.