Review: The Big Feastival 2013

Clockwise from left: The music stage, gazpacho from a caravan, and the cheese tent by Alex

As we drove through the manicured villages of The Cotswolds on our way to Jamie Oliver and Alex James’s The Big Feastival – a two-day food and music extravaganza – it suddenly struck me that I didn’t really do big, crowded, noisy events.

I never ‘did Glastonbury’, not even once, and especially not at the height of the Mud Years which many of my friends lived through and pretended were a blast. I did do the Notting Hill Carnival, but only once. A near death-crush experience on a crowded pavement somewhere near Ladbroke Grove ensured I never returned, even though the Caribbean food was great. Millennium Eve celebrations in central London? Well, you can only do that once, but a similar near death-crush experience near Westminster Bridge, also ensured that I never really ventured into the city again on December 31st.

However, arriving at ex-Blur member Alex James’s expansive farm and country pile in Kingham, Oxfordshire, I needn’t have worried. With an expected 14,000 plus visitors over the course of the weekend, the spacious Feastival site seemed to have been organised with military precision.

Six handy (and inexpensive) little baby things

ALL UNDER £10. Top row: Polliwalks, Total Baby app, Philips Avent food containers
Bottom row: Doidy Cups, Baby Bottom Butter, Sophie the Giraffe

Having your first baby is truly a venture into the unknown and before the little one arrives the list of things you think you need mounts by the day. What type of cot should we buy? What about the pram? There are hundreds out there, how will we know which one is right for us and how much should be spend? How about nappies – could we save a lot by buying in bulk, but how many will we need and in what size?

The list goes on and – let me tell you – it carries on getting longer the minute you bring your shiny new bundle home from hospital.

As my little one just had his first birthday, I was reflecting on some of the things my husband and I have bought over the past year that we’ve really valued and found extremely useful. Some of them I didn’t even want to buy in the beginning, but have since been so glad I did.

I’m currently compiling my list of Top 10 best baby buys (the bigger, pricier buys) that new mums might find useful (although ask any other mums with a one-year-old and they might give you a completely different list), and I’ll be posting it soon.

In the meantime, here’s a round-up of six, inexpensive little things I’ve found pretty useful in the last year.