Lost Village Festival Review Part II

The morning after the night before I woke late with a slightly fuzzy feeling – everything blurred a little at the edges, as I remembered the surreal events of the previous night.

The smell of campfires, stale beer and something delicious wafted over, making my stomach grumble with fury. The boutique glampers had the right idea, stepping out of their sumptuous teepees to find gourmet coffee brewing nicely.

We took ourselves straight to the crumpet and tea van, which was so quintessentially English, I fell instantly in love with it.

It was just the ticket and having satisfied the hunger pangs, we made our way into the festival to see what was unfolding. People loitered around the camp, still recovering from the night before, some adopting the hair of the dog strategy and others lazily laying in the grass, dozing slightly.

As the day wore on, more and more Villagers came to join the party, with bus loads of revellers being deposited in the thick of the action. People had made even more effort with their outfits for the Saturday and we loved wandering around seeing people in everything from feathered headdresses, to gothic creations and 80’s aerobic instructor style neon leotards.  

My Lost Village tribe danced together and decorated each other with face paints and gold tribal tattoos and I joined in the action, adding some little extras to my look. I desperately wanted to have my face painted in glitter but the party got into full swing and the opportunity was missed.

Flower crown (Sold out) but similar here 

We wandered the beautiful ancient woodland, finding all sorts of fantastical and weird goings on. The clairvoyant beckoned me in and whispered in my ear that my true love was waiting nearby and to meet her near the Lake of Tranquillity at 8pm to find out an important secret.

I loved that the characters were all linked and it was all part of a bigger story. The more you engage with the characters the more you find out about it. Of course, if you just want to jive to some techno music with a hairy little hobgoblin, you can just do that too and we did!

When we needed a little rest from the music there was a lot of other stuff to keep us occupied. Beautiful flower decorated yurts welcomed Villagers inside to learn a new craft such as needle felting, or to buy one of the lovely handmade wares on offer.

As we left the Yurt, we found acrobats entangled in a giant cat’s cradle and performing awe inspiring aerial stunts. It all felt quite ethereal, as they eerily swung above our heads, occasionally dropping to the ground to encircle us, before disappearing back into the trees like wispy woodland nymphs.

We made our way to the main stage as Eats Everything came on to do a set and the crowd went wild. New friends were made, as people joined together to celebrate being young, free and in nature. It is one of the friendliest festivals I’ve experienced, with people genuinely keen to connect with others, and we were approached many times by people alone or in small groups just wanting to strike up conversation.

After a lot of dancing we ventured to a teepee bar for a rest and couldn’t resist partaking in some bubbles. Lounging on the comfy bean bags we were delighted by a firework spectacular, as they whizzed, and fizzed and banged, bathing the sky in bright coloured lights. 

We kicked back and enjoyed the show before making our way back to the Burial Ground as the party was really getting going. But not before some magic compelled us to ask 'mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest Villager of them all'.

The crowd heaved and throbbed in unison to the beat, with people taking a break now and again to refuel at the nearby bars. Time passed in a blur of laughter, chatting and dancing before the familiar call for food beckoned. 

Feeling spoilt for choice we gravitated towards Voodoo Ray’s pizza van, which is a trendy Shoreditch favourite and had several large pizza pies laid out alluringly. The herbivore (me) opted for the delicious Green Velvet, which had artichoke, salty olives, juicy sunblush tomatoes, garlicky pesto and stringy mozzarella.

The carnivore (him) had the Hot Mix 5, with spicy pepperoni, jalapeños, chillies, red peppers, and lots of gooey, melty cheese. They were gorgeous and as close to a New York slice as you can probably get in the UK. It’s making me hungry just thinking about them now. Feeling that satisfied carb induced coma that only pizza can provide, slumber called after a long, eventful and fun day.

As we were leaving, a ghoulish looking character bade us a goodnight and said ‘do make sure you come back tomorrow, if you don’t get lost in the woods tonight’.

We walked a little quicker back to camp that night, huddling in tight to guard against the chill that had suddenly raised the hairs on the backs of our necks. The sound of unnatural midnight bird song and eerie green mist followed us around the woods, adding to the surreal experience.