Gone Wild Festival Review

In her younger days, my wife was partial to a festival or two. In fact, they were the backdrop to many of her teenage years and early 20s. So when she mentioned taking our kids to a festival, I had images of all-night raves in muddy fields, mosh pits, and overflowing portaloos.

 

I am happy to report that Gone Wild festival, Norfolk 2024, was nothing like I had feared.

 

Instead of the rave music, there was McFly.

Instead of the crowds wading through knee-deep mud, there was open space for the kids to run in, set against the beautiful backdrop of Holkham Hall.

Instead of the overflowing portaloos, were… well, they were still portaloos, but they were clean, and there were enough of them. There were also decent shower facilities.

When we arrived, we set up our tent in the camping section, and it was really well laid out. There was plenty of space for paths and walkways between sections of the campsite so you didn’t feel like people were on top of you. One quick tip though – get one of those beach wagon things – EVERYONE had them to cart their stuff around, and I felt like a right lemon carrying my massive heavy tent from the car without one.

Inside the festival itself, I had visions of chaotic crowds cramming from one thing to another. In reality, it was pretty chilled. I didn’t have to have my kids on reigns as I feared I might. There was actually a great amount of space between the event sections too, so you could easily find a quiet spot to sit and eat, or just to escape for 10 minutes.

There were so many great activities that our kids loved – medieval sword fighting with foam swords and helmets, a place to make your own stone age tools, loads of bushcraft skills like fire making and spear crafting, and even a wild eat bug station (which the family chickened out of, but took great delight in watching me turn my hand to).

I am a huge fan of street food, so the food at this event was a highlight for me – there was your standard stuff like burgers and pizzas where the queues can get pretty big at peak times, but I would really recommend trying some of the other stuff. The Thai and the Sri Lankan food in particular were awesome, with decent-sized portions for festival food.

Then in the evenings, we headed over to the music stage. When I was a student, I saw Example live about 5 times (back in his rapper days), and my kids love his newer poppy stuff, so it was a beautiful full-circle moment dancing to his music with the kids on my shoulders. And he managed to keep the swear words down to just one or two, which was nice!

 

In summary, I could not recommend this festiva more if you have young kids and are looking for a new experience with them. The whole thing was set up wonderfully, and the kids had such a great time they are clamouring to get back there this year! I best find myself a better camp bed before August then!

 

If you are interested in going, then you can find out more on their website here.