Family Festival

Festivals are back on. Can you hear me at the back? FESTIVALS ARE BACK ON! We started the season at Folk in a Field 2021 in my home county. Folk in a Field takes place in the heart of Norfolk near to the village of West Acre, the Folk in a Field 2021 brings together a diverse mix of performers from the acoustic, folk and roots music scene. The beautiful rural Norfolk setting, surrounded by thick woodland is perfect for this local laid back, chilled family festival.

What to expect

We drove in late on the Friday down a small farm path. We were welcomed by a cheerful marshall who checked us in and shared all the Covid information in record time. Every precaution had been taken to make sure the festival was as safe as possible. Luke and the team have worked incredibly hard with the local council to ensure guests were safe. The festival is only small but spacious. There was loads of room for camping. The kids even had space for ball games and gymnastics in between pitches. The food stall queues were socially distanced as were the crafts. Sanitiser was widely available and everybody was respectful of each others space. At the main stage friends sat in groups on their own chairs and blankets and there were regular reminders by the compere. Some people chose to bring their four legged friends too and were also very respectful of the site.

The Music

The Music was just right, chilled out vibes in the day and cranked up as the night progressed. I’ll be honest I’m not well versed in the who’s who of the Folk Music world but I definitely had some favourites over the weekend and have been digging into their back catalogues with excitement ever since. That’s the joy about music your ears can delight in so many different sounds.  Having an open-minded appreciation allows you to see the value of many different types of music and identify the gems from each genre. My favourite of the weekend were 3 Daft monkeys much more than a musical performance. These guys are real entertainers and will have you swaying along and even standing on your heads during their dynamic sets. I also really enjoyed Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys up beat folk music with a more contemporary feel. Lastly and with a much more chilled out vibe Ajay Srivastav was the perfect for nursing a few sore heads from the night before. Their percussive set in the afternoon sun was magical.

Food and Drink

Your welcome to consume your own food and drink on the campsite. Just no glass-ware as the field is used for animal grazing. In the festival there’s some great local vendors selling pizza , burgers and vegetarian options as well as cream teas and ice-creams. They are open pretty early for breakfast and well into the evening for a lush Pizza Supper. Prices are competitive, our stonebaked pizza was £11. The bar is well stocked with a selection of ales some super strength cider which was far too delightful, wine and soft drinks. My cider/s was £4.50! The festival is pretty ethical too although this year was forced to use disposable plastic cups because of covid.

Things to do

There are some interesting craft demonstrations and activities over the weekend. We enjoyed Archery – shooting zombies, hair braiding, willow weaving, circus demonstrations, hoopla and mini monsters. Not too mention yoga and a wonderful children’s entertainer on the main stage Sunday morning. My only slight grumble is that for some of them we stumbled on them by chance and couldn’t really find a list of what was on when, like we had for the music acts! This could be me of course with my over planning brain. My friends said they liked the surprises along the weekend as it added to the chilled feel.

Amenities

There were plenty of well kept loos in the camping field and in the woods near the main arena. In the morning you can also get a hot shower in the woods. Granted they aren’t very powerful but it was an unexpected treat. I’d come armed with stacks of wet wipes. There are two areas you can collect water from (which we found) and big skips for your rubbish. The site was immaculate. Even after a rain downpour the tractors arrived with woodchip to ensure it wasn’t a muddy mess that you get accustomed to at most festivals. Friendly staff are everywhere, and although I don’t know Luke, whenever I saw him or his team they were busy ensuring everything went smoothly – which it did!

The first aid tent is well manned and they even gave me a ice pack for my poorly back. They have a few charging lockers for your phones so you can snap away all weekend. Dont forget to purchase your FIAF merch. Most of the stalls took contactless and card too, which was very handy.

Final Thoughts

Folk in a field 2021 is an absolute delight and a great way to start the festival season. I would highly recommend the festival to those of you who may not have done family festivals before or couples and older groups looking for a really relaxing experience with a good old fashioned knees up in the evening. The last band comes on at 11pm so everything is wrapped up at a decent hour so you even get to enjoy a peaceful sleep. we got a lovely lie in too thanks to the kids being absolutely shattered, the previously mentioned cider and our Coleman blackout tent. Dont forget you can also takes dogs to this one on leads of course which is quite rare.

We felt safe and well looked after all weekend Jade (Lukes wife) even popped over with her two young children to see how we were doing. I think they have both deserved a well earned rest this weekend and to be congratulated on such a successful festival in the most difficult of years. We hope to go back next year and will make sure we book the Monday off so we can enjoy the Sunday entertainment too.

Head to Music Festival Norfolk | Folkinafield.co.uk | Norfolk for ticket information , you can also keep keep updated with all things folk in a field on their Facebook and Instagram pages

Thanks again for having the Cookie clan we had smashing time.

*disclaimer – Press tickets gifted for the purpose of this review however as always my words are my own