On Sunday we attended CarFest South at Laverstoke Park Farm and wanted to do a bit of a write up of our time at the festival, our favourite bits and must sees. It still feels like such a novelty to be able to do these things again, especially as a family now we have Arthur.
What is CarFest South?
CarFest South is a festival put on by Chris Evans, filled with cars, music, a fairground and a shopping village/food market. CarFest has the sole purpose of raising money for children’s charities and over the last decade has raised over £16.5 million pounds for charities such as BBC Children in Need, Teenage Cancer Trust and the Starlight Children’s Foundation to name a few. Over the past 10 years CarFest has welcomed nearly 1.2 million people and had 350 different artists and featured over 1800 cars. Fun for all of the family.
Where is CarFest?
CarFest South is at Laverstoke Park Farm, Hampshire and most recently took place August 27-29 2021. There is also CarFest North in Cheshire earlier on in the year. They often have the same artists/shows at each festival making it easily accessible throughout the UK.
Music at CarFest South
The highlight of CarFest South this year were All Saints, James Bay, James Blunt, Rick Astley, McFly and Ronan Keating with others such as Banners, The Fratellis, Texas, a DJ Set from Faithless and Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance. I was most excited for McFly, 13 year old me would have been very jealous of current me seeing them live. They didn’t disappoint and Arthur loved them too. We didn’t stay for Ronan Keating as had to head home but I would have loved to see him.
Track Shows at CarFest South
CarFest South has three daily track shows. “Retro Style and Speed” – a selection of cars through the ages designed to look good and go fast, including Porsche, McLaren, Ferrari and Lamborghini. “A Celebration of Motorsport” and “The Everything Show” with, as you can imagine, a bit of everything. Even the Batmobile and the Ghost Busters Car. Your little ones will love these as did we. There’s plenty of room around and inside the track for you to get a good view of all of the cars and try and snap some good photos.
Food and Drink Stalls
A festival wouldn’t be a festival without various different food and drink vendors available. I stayed true to brand (if you follow me on Instagram you’ll know) and had a pizza which was quite good value for a festival at £12 for the whole pizza. Other options included your classic burger/hog roast, noodles and Mexican which we didn’t find. The burgers were priced at £8 which is pretty steep but there was also a footlong hotdog from the same stall for £8 which seemed more reasonable. There was also Mac and Cheese with various different toppings which looked incredible.
The bar priced us out of having more than one drink each charging £9.60 for a pint and a half of Strongbow. I may be behind with the times but is that not very expensive for a basic cider that isn’t really that nice? We did discover whilst waiting for our pizza that there was a stall selling 5 pint bags of cider for £15 which is more reasonable. Or failing that you could go around tasting the different wines and gins on offer at the stalls in the Farmers Market.
Other stalls and shows at CarFest
As well as the main stage shows and track shows mentioned above there is also the “Wigwam Stage” featuring artists such as Sophie Henderson and Franke Green Band, the “Napoleon Grills Kitchen Stage” which featured chefs such as Candice Brown and Melissa Hemsley and the “Starfest Stage” featuring AJ and Curtis Pritchard, James Martin and Giovanna Fletcher. There’s also The Showground putting on shows such as The Dog and Duck Show, Sharky and George and a Falconry Display, a Yoga tent with hourly classes and Southampon FC skills sessions running throughout the day.
Our experience of CarFest South
I’ve mentioned most of these above but my main highlight was seeing McFly, as well as strolling around the paddocks having a good look at some of the cars that were on display or part of the track shows. I loved seeing “Lightning McQueen” from Cars, Formula 1 cars through the ages and some of the club displays of the Lamborghinis and DeLoreans. I enjoyed the Farmers Market, having tasters of the foods and drinks and also the Rock Choir singing some of my favourites.
I would have liked to try a bit more of the food and drink on offer but after paying £9.60 for a pint and a half and £10.49 for 2 bits of fudge and a handful of sweets I restrained myself before I ended up spending a fortune. VIP Nuts in the Farmers Market were selling 10 packs of nuts for £10 so I bought some of these to snack on throughout the music – I loved the Hot Honey and Mustard flavour.
Did you attend CarFest South or North this year? What were your highlights?
Until next time,
Ami x
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