Jodie Alice Fisher A personal blog from the heart of a young Mum
I’m still in a sort of bubbly come down from attending BBC Countryfile Live at the beginning of August. The atmosphere and buzz was just incredible.
We spent Thursday and Friday in the beautiful grounds of Blenheim Palace in Oxford. It was our first experience of a proper festival. I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t think I’ve ever watched an episode of Countryfile but I love everything to do with the countryside, farming and the nature around us so I was really pumped about going.
So much so I persuaded Hubby to book an Airbnb for one night so that we could attend two days and get the absolute most out of our trip. Thankfully he reluctantly agreed. So I packed our bags and we headed off very early Thursday morning to hopefully arrive for opening time (9:30am).
Sadly, we left 20 minutes later than we’d hoped, I needed a wee half way through the two hour trip, and good old M25 traffic meant we was a tiny bit late but still before 10am. Good going if you ask me!
We picked up our press wristbands and headed through the gates. Immediately we were hit by various smells of delicious food cooking in the food stalls, vans and tents. There were hundreds of people already. We headed for the loo first.
I was a little worried about the sheer quantity of portable toilets especially as our youngest daughter is extremely picky about her toilet situation and only likes clean toilets. I’m pleased to report that both days of our trip the loos were always clean. I literally mean always. There was an attendant there constantly. I was impressed. The only issue was that it was like walking into a sauna due to the nearly 30 degree heat.
We had a map in hand and the app downloaded to help us keep a track of where we were and what there was going on. We had been invited to attend and so we headed to the press tent to get our bearings. The size of the event was quite overwhelming.
BBC Countryfile Live was being hosted over four days, Thursday to Sunday. We’d attended the first two. We missed the Saturday party which was a shame but there was so much going on for both days that we honestly felt wiped out on Friday evening.
There was a whole array of fun shows going on in various parts of Blenheim Palace grounds. We mainly circulated around the Equine Arena, Dog Lovers Arena and the Central Arena too. The girls were definitely more interested in the animal related shows and demonstrations.
Countryfile Live is a huge market place for brands/charities/organisations to connect with their audience. Wandering around all of the stalls was really interesting and lots of them had little free activities for the kids to get involved in. P2 specifically loved learning about Moths with the Butterfly Conservation, P1 enjoyed making natural necklaces from wood with Nearly Wild Camping and P3 enjoyed the slide at the Jordan’s Grin-Ola stand and getting to sit in a Mini (she wants one for her birthday this year – she’s going to be 4!)
We all loved getting to stroke the Shire horses and on our second day we enjoyed a family pizza trip to the DeliVita pop-up restaurant. In fact that meal was made better by an elderly lady offering us half of her chocolate caterpillar birthday cake. Hubby took P2 and P3 on a Mitsubishi off-road driving experience
For both days we enjoyed or endured extreme temperatures. We had been out in it the entire day with little shade. Our water bottles were refilled at the designated points many many times. Personally I loved the weather but poor Hubby was pushing a double buggy up some pretty steep hills and bumpy terrain.
I loved the entire experience. I loved seeing everybody so cheerful. I enjoyed speaking with brands and it felt amazing to find out new things about the countryside and what goes on. I’m still on a buzz from it, over a week later, and I would love to go again next year!
Here’s a photo diary of our time at Countryfile, I just couldn’t whittle them down to a few and wanted to include all of these for different reasons. I hope you enjoy and they help give you the urge to book for next years Countryfile Live!
Day 1 – Thursday
Day 2 – Friday
Thank you so much for getting to the end of this post. I hope you’ve enjoyed my photos and two videos. We honestly had such a brilliant time at Countryfile Live and I hope to go again next year.
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.
