Frolicking in the wild flowers at lovely Goren Festival, Devon

This year we bought ourselves a V Dub Transporter and planned lots of little trips for the summer.

The first festival we went to was Goren Festival in Stockland, Honiton.
img_3344Goren is a new festival. It began as an event by the local school PTA and this year, was the first year the organisers opened it up to the wider public.

It is set in an idyllic farm, cunningly named Goren Farm, which used to be a dairy farm. Times change and since 1990, the fields have been cultivated to become dedicated “hay meadows to develop a natural balance with nature”.

According to Goren’s website no chemicals are used on the farm and the fields aren’t plowed, there is a small herd of Ruby Red Devon cattle and Border Leicester sheep, and the owners manage the hedgerows to allow wildlife to flourish.  Cider is made from the orchards, filtering the apples through straw and they will soon be producing vegetables for local consumption.

Goren Farm was awarded a commendation in Britain’s most Beautiful Farm Awards and I can vouch for it’s beauty.

I used to organise a festival back in LDN and I got a bit of festival envy when I got to Goren. There is so much space and the farm perfectly lends itself to a festival, with a series of meadows allowing for separate areas for; music, children’s activities, archery and circus skills (although the latter seemed to end pretty early).
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Goren had a full musical line up, a very cheap bar serving prosecco and tea and cake cafe, a climbing tree, a trampoline, hay bales to climb on and a couple of food stalls.

The kids field included: Crafting activities..

img_3376Wood work, making magic staffs and flower garlands. There was also entertainment on the stage for the kids..

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AND.. They also had a lovely story telling session under a tree..

The festival ran over two days, Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th July and tickets were a total bargain at £12.50 for adults and kids go free!  All the money raised went to help to build a library and most of the people working at the festival were parents from the school.  It was a great example of community action.

The only downside to the festival for us, was that we had to camp with the cars in the carpark where there was only one toilet! But given the budget the organisers must have been working with and they great care they put into the festival I won’t complain.

We are certainly hoping that Goren Festival will be happening next year. If it is, and you are looking for a lovely intimate festival perfect for families with small people and close to Exeter, we can highly recommend it.

More info here.

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