Standon Calling – Family friendly Festival

Standon Calling – Family friendly Festival in Hertfordshire

I did a bit of a crazy thing, I returned from a week in Corsica to go straight to a festival in the rain! I was (surreal moment no 1) chatting to Jo Whiley in Heathrow airport about going to Standon Calling that afternoon and looking forward to seeing Grace Jones. We had just spent a week on the same holiday together. She assured me she is amazing, and puts on the best show!  So heres what we got up too at the 2017 Standon Calling family friendly festival.

Saturday Standon Calling in the rain

We got home to pouring rain, put on our wellies and rain jackets and headed to Standon Calling! Dylan, Josh and I went for the Saturday afternoon. We caught some of the music, went on the fairground rides and ate some amazing food! It was muddy but we explored and wondered through every stage area and checked out the stalls.

We caught Prep and Fickle Thieves on the main stage and Idles at the Early Years at the Laundry Meadows stage. Did Dylan and Josh want to stay in the rain for Clean Bandit 3 hours later? No they didn’t, sad mummy, but also glad mummy as I was very wet.

The boys went on the carousel and the bungee trampolines. We had a wonder around the family area and checked out the face painting. Everything looked a bit washed out, I felt so sorry for the stall holders.

Saturday Dinner

I went for the most amazing chicken katsu curry, Dylan had a giant hot dog and Josh decided on a bowl of chips! Adventurous as ever! The food at the festival is incredible, very expensive, but so tasty. And so much choice.

We had a wonder around the chill area where there was yoga, hot tubs and massage. It was just £25 for a day pass, how I wish it was sunny and we could have spent more time there. It was sponsored by Boots who gave us some goody bags.

We stayed until 7pm and then headed home, sorry no camping this year.

Sunday Sun, Drinking and Dancing

Sunday was a very different day. I took my best friend Neil boy instead of the children. This meant we could drink. Hubby very kindly dropped us off at 10:30am as we had booked the bottomless brunch at Le Bun for 11:30.

It was very muddy after the heavy rain from the Saturday. I was well prepared in my wellies. Neilboy not so much in his converse trainers. We headed for the (only) non-muddy area called the groove garden which is next to the swimming pool, slightly gutted that I didn’t bring my bikini. We got our first drink, an expresso martini for me, wine for Neil. Oh dear. We chilled in arm chairs in the very empty bar, then moved outside to sit in the windy, but sunny grass area.

Le Bun Brunch

11:30 was brunch time. We have been excited about Le Bun for weeks, we pre-booked our slot. It was £37 each for food and bottomless drinks. Le Bun is a cool pop-up American diner place and the food was just amazing. We got 2 mains and 2 sides each and shared. The choice was pretty easy, pulled pork, a burger, fries and side of bacon. We took our seat on a two-seater car seat overlooking the entire festival and sat there drinking mimosa and watching Mr Motivator on stage – surreal moment no 2.

Three hours were filled drinking, watching Lisa ‘Adele’ Martin, the Rockaoke Final (I am so doing that next year) and then the Cuban brothers. Yes, we were there for hours. We both ran off to get our glitter faces done at Go Get Glitter whom I met last year and whom remembered me! I went purple and green, a perfect match for my bright pink lips and zebra print dress. Neilboy went for a mixture.

We proceeded to drink a lot of prosecco, I won’t tell you how much as its obscene. But let’s say were very drunk after Le Bun. We eventually left at around 3pm and headed back to the non-muddy groove garden area. I bumped into a few people I knew, it’s a festival 30 minutes from where I live, this was bound to happen. I asked a friendly looking person with nice hair to braid my hair.

Ultimate Power

We checked the handy planner and headed to Cinderella’s motel for ultimate power disco. Oh my gosh, let me tell you how good this is. The music was classic 80’s ballads, Toto, Bon Jovi, Queen, Journey. It was amazing and we sang our heart out to every song and danced around the tent.

After that we just chilled, met people and chatted, Neilboy did a spot of yoga with new found friends. We headed to the press area and chatted to photographers. Learnt about the word of festival photography, I shared the world of blogging. Eventually it was time for Grace Jones, we manged to miss Editors in between Ultimate Power and Grace Jones.

Grace Jones

Surreal moment no 3, standing in the press pit with Jamie 1 and Jamie 2 from the event organiser agency and many proper photographers (who laughed at my Nikon D3300!) standing right in front of Grace Jones. I just looked around me and I could not believe the scenario! She was incredible, very late, very dramatic. Amazing voice, very dirty with her between song chatter (penetration was mentioned a lot) and such a performer. I have just googled it, she is 69!! 69 oh my gosh. She can perform like a 20-year-old.

Sink The Pink

By this point it was around 10:30/11 so I headed back to Cinderella’s motel for Sink the Pink. What a way to end the night. The most beautiful girls (who might be boys!) dancing and writhing and jumping to the best gay anthems ever. I got to the front with a load of teenagers who knew none of the words, I buddied up with a girl who was mates with the Sink the Pink girls and sang along to everything. I stayed to the very end loving every minute of it.

By 12:30 it was home time, I had wanted to stay for Sister Bliss from Faithless (whom I just love) but it was time to get a cab home. Neilboy had been lost hours ago so I found the cab stand and was home by 1am. Getting home at the same time as Neilboy who just walked 5 miles after exiting the taxi.

An amazing festival both for families or for grownups alike. We all loved it and will of course be back again next year. Maybe camping, or maybe not. It was nice to get a cab home to dry, warm bed!

Please visit the Standon Calling website for tickets for next year.

Thank you to the organisers from my tickets for the family and Neilboy.