Leaving our paw prints at Nature Valley's Gone Wild Festival

We spent the sunny August Bank Holiday in the stunning location of Powderham Castle, for the Nature Valley Gone Wild Festival. The family adventure festival, organised by Bear Grylls and the Royal Marines Charity was packed with over 80 wild activities for visitors to get involved with - from paddleboarding, to axe thowing, to tree climbing! Let's not forget the incredible music line-up with headliners including Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight.

Not only did 6,000 attend the festival, this one-of-a-kind event was the very first Gone Wild Festival and it supported the The Royal Marines Charity with 10% of all proceeds going directly to support serving and former Royal Marines and their families. Read on to see how we spent our time at the festival - we already can't wait for next year!

Friday

We arrived at Powderham Castle Friday evening, found our camping spot and quickly pitched our tent to avoid missing any of the action ahead of us. The campsite was incredibly friendly, bright and full of fairy lights to help you navigate your way around.

 

We followed the path through the site which lead us directly to the grounds of Powderham Castle. At this point you could already feel the excitement and see the sparkly outfits as the first night of live music was about to kick off. We made it just in time for Scouting For Girls' set - the trio didn't disappoint as they performed their crowd-pleasing hits 'She's So Lovely' and 'Heartbeat'.

Next up were headliners Razorlight, across the field you could see nothing but heads bopping along to their fan-favourite singles including 'America' and 'In the Morning'. After the closing performance, we headed to the fun fair and hopped on the dodgems and ferris wheel - you can't go to a festival without visiting the fair, right?

Saturday

After waking up the next morning and tucking into a bacon sandwich from the camping stove (along with everyone else, imagine the irrestible smell), we made our way back up to the festival site for an afternoon full of activities. 

First of all we gave axe throwing a go, something we've always wanted to try. The instructor was very informative and made us feel at ease. It wasn't long before the rest of the people in the group started cheering each other on when their axe successfully made it onto the wooden target. Some members of our group seemed to have the knack for it!

After we returned our axes (this was difficult, it's incredibly addictive), we moved onto the next activity - archery! We attached our arm shields, picked up a bow and began to aim for the bullseye. The instructors were fantastic and even helped a member of our group to aim better, who definitely picked up the technique in the end!

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We re-fuelled back at the campsite, then headed back up to the festival arena to catch Saturday's headlining acts. Campers were extremely excited to see Mel C and spent the entire set dancing, as she perfomed songs from her upcoming album, her singles from the late 90s and some Spice Girls classics of course!

It was now time for Kaiser Chiefs to take to the stage! The setlist including 'I Predict a Riot', 'Ruby' and 'Everyday I Love You Less and Less' made the night unforgettable. The band even returned to the stage for a two-song encore! After Kaiser Chiefs left the stage, we made our way over to the silent disco which kept us dancing until the early hours of the morning...

Sunday 

Our last day at the festival was jam-packed with activities including tree climbing, crazy bikes and rock climbing - all whilst the glorious sun was shining down on us.

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After the activities, we grabbed lunch from one of the many tasty food and drink stalls and sat in front of the main stage, to dig into our treats and enjoy live music from local bands. Dick & Dom then took the stage by storm and got both the parents and kids standing up and dancing to club classics!

Sunday evening came and it was our time to pack up our tents and leave only our paw prints at Powderham Castle. Thank you to Gone Wild for a fantastic weekend, we can't stop talking about it!

Don't forget to keep your eyes peeled, we hear 2022 dates and tickets will be available very soon...