Bredy Farm – Weekender (Aug 24)
Festival camping in Dorset
After dropping off my son and his friends at Reading Festival, we headed south west to Bredy Farm, near Burton Bradstock in Dorset. We’d booked tickets for their 19th micro-festival called “Be-Cider-Seaside” and encountered some of the friendliest people you could ever wish to meet. I’d say most people we met were repeat-attenders, and simply rocked up in their vans and mobile homes. We brought the bell tent along with kitchen sink as usual!
In chatting to others it quickly became apparent that many squeeze this in between trips to larger festivals like Beautiful Days, Mucky-weekender, Shindig or Boomtown. Bredy Farm is minuscule in comparison, but has an amazing vibe with a similar demographic.
The main stage and festival camping field is on a hilltop overlooking the Jurassic Coast with dreamy sunsets, and footpaths across the hills leading to the cliffs and beach. It is the perfect place to unwind.
We experienced some great music over the three days and nights, at a venue that has got the mix just about right. The nearest I’ve come to views like this at a festival is the now disbanded Watchet festival in Somerset, with its views across the Severn estuary into Wales, or even Green Man in the heart of the Brecon Beacons.
However, what sets this apart from many others is the fact that our tickets also provided access to the main farm with its gorgeous campground (separate from the main festival camping) sitting smack in the middle of an apple orchard, which, this time of the year is full to bursting with fruit laden trees. The farm itself has an amazing collection of antique farm equipment and rustic buildings, some of are restaurants and places with seating areas. There are dozens of other outbuildings and old sheds, a number of which have been converted to accommodate dance sets or live music stages at weekends. This place even has a swimming/plunge pool next to the main bar.
It looks like it’s simply grown organically over the last 20 years rather than being meticulously planned out to be this way.
The DJ sets in the evenings were great, not too large and with plenty of space to relax outside. Many spent time relaxing in the pool or standing around the fire pits, drying off, much to Emma’s delight, who on Saturday night found herself standing next to a young muscular fellow wearing nothing but his underwear – photo later!
We only booked this a few weeks ago on the back of seeing a post from a FB friend, so thanks Thea for the hint. It looks like she experienced it during the week when it is significantly calmer and more tranquil.
Miraculously we managed to swerve the worst of the wind and rain that was threatened from Hurricane Lillian… but we did endure torrential rain of near biblical proportion overnight on our first night – but thankfully this occurred while we were tucked up in our bed, asleep. From then on, we had near perfect weather for a festival – no mud!
I’d recommend this place for camping alone, and at anytime. It’s 18+ only, so no ankle biters, peaceful in the week and a party venue most weekends with a few full-on weekend festivals over the summer. We’re coming back!
Being only 5 minute drive from the coast we couldn’t leave without taking a walk along the sand at Hive beach near Burton Bradstock
So all in all a great weekend. One to remember and to book for next year – one of the three festivals is more dub and dance, so maybe try that one!
Our favourite find over the weekend was “Holy Youth Movement”, a Bristol based band who’ve been around for a while but I’ve never come across them. Infectious Electronic Rock is the best way to describe them, incredibly tight and made their way straight to my playlist.
