Out’n'About at Glastonbury

One Mummy's story about getting the courage to head to a field for a week with a five month old, a Nipper Single and 200,000-odd other people.

I bought my Glastonbury ticket in September, still not daring to believe that Oriana was real. Labelled AMA by the hospital, my head was filled with the stats and scary stories of many friends and family. I could scarcely hope!

One Lucky Mummy

With an early arrival (by a few weeks) in January and wow has life changed! For the better in every way that I could never have predicted. I'm in love!

What to do about Glastonbury?

I still couldn't face the idea of skipping Glastonbury and wasting my ticket! Was I mad? Maybe, and certainly delirious from sleepless nights, but even so I imagined that it must be possible and so my research began. I wanted to share the awesome Glastonbury experience with my darling daughter! So what to do about Glastonbury with baby?

Despite going to Glastonbury 5 times before, I had no idea about the family angle, and I'm ashamed to admit, had never even considered it's existence.

Research

I joined every Facebook Group and forum discussing #Glastobabies as well as every other festival group for tips that I could find. The chats were filled with advice from Mummy's and Daddy's that were old hat and knew exactly what they were doing! I gained hope!

• How would I navigate the mud with a 5-month-old?
• How could I camp successfully and get to and fro with a buggy?
• Would I need to get a cart to tow around with me or should I try slings?
• What facilities are there on-site?

The questions were already asked in every group 10 times over.

The Biggest Decision Point

The biggest decision point always came back to mobility at the festival. Time and time again the answer came back across different platforms, discussions and more, that the very best thing that you could take to a festival was an Out n About Nipper 360.

I was intrigued. I had briefly heard about Out'n'About from my little sister, who recommended that I get one if I ever bought my own buggy so I could run — Yes, I'm also a closet runner … I traditionally give my legs a good stretch a couple of times a year, usually for a half marathon like Brighton.

I looked around and researched further and really fell for the idea of getting an OnA for Glastonbury. Again - a lucky year for me - my significant other treated me; otherwise, we'd have been making do with a pretty ancient *CENSORED COMPETITOR* buggy hand me down that struggles on the streets of Cambridge (pot-hole central). I feared that I would get to the festival and need to bail, heading home early as expected by the nay-sayers (the shame)!

Blue - as my favourite colour is red and his is purple, instead we opted for blue as the colour suits us all best!

Packing

I obviously was not only researching this angle of the festival, and with lots of experience, I was perhaps a little overzealous on scenario planning. Yes, I borrowed my parents SUV and filled it to the ceiling with everything I could possibly squeeze in. I'm ashamed to say that I definitely overpacked to the tune of x 4! Ahhh well. At least I was able to do this - in previous years I've caught public transport!

Worthy Bell

I also, for the first time ever, got a bell tent in Worthy View (yes, I knew about ***THE*** hill but was not worried as I'm half Swiss). It meant that we had a 4 person space - lots of space to bring the buggy inside and to set up a nappy change area! Luxury (- oh how life has changed)!

Pimp My Buggy

So those lonely 4 am feeds lead to ridiculous online shopping escapades, and one of these was the decision to have the best buggy at Glastonbury. You need lights to ensure that you can be seen and that people partying hard have fair warning that you're there. So … I went to town!

Awesome glowing strip lights with 20 different settings, fairy lights, rainbow leis, toys, trusty steriliser balls, XL battery chargers… I can safely say that I had one of if not the very best dressed buggy!