This year’s Carfest South is the only Carfest this year as normally there is one in the North as well. Not really sure why at the moment, anyway the North’s loss is our gain, as we would put a bet that a large number of North’s attendees would gladly switch as they know how great a time they will have, as we do as we attended last year. This is a genuine family treat, I don’t know of any other festival that is made up of seven separate areas or fests, and the kids’ area is very big. Most obviously there is a price to pay, but there is quite a lot of free stuff too! During the day there is food demonstrations, retro cars, vintage cars, racing cars, all sorts of cars with lots taking to the racetrack three times a day, wheel spins, donuts, the lot! And of course, lots of noise.

One of the areas we visited this time is the Spa Fest, which has an array of wellness stalls, featuring stalls about natural childbirth, massage techniques, healthy eating and new age therapies. One I personally tried was the free Ice bath area, where you could try this fascinating area of cold water life changing ideals as taught by Wim Hoff. If you don’t know about him and his philosophy, please check him out, as for myself after about three minutes in the bath, after drying out I felt like a blue tinted superman, it was something else. Then of course later you have the music, with a couple of smaller tented venues featuring everything from drum banging red clothed people, to dancers and even a Carfest talent show. You never know what’s going to crop up. As for the main stage, you have three days/nights of varied styles of music this year we had Craig David, Gok Wan doing a DJ set, Peter Andre, and even a masked singer in the form of a very colourful big bird, which turned out to be none other than the Carfest regular Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs. Least said about the Village People the better, but it was obvious from the reaction of Chris Evans, he wasn’t happy. One of the brains behind this superb idea and still very enthusiastic, it is very contagious to see him running around, dad dancing and meeting people, but even he can’t get it right every time. I won’t go through the entire list, but there was something for everyone. One of our personal favourites Texas finished the weekend and smashed it out of the park as usual – you can rely on them every time.

You have to take your hat off to Chris Evans and his crew in again putting on such a varied excellent festival that all ages can enjoy and build great memories, as witnessed with the smiles we saw all weekend. And of course, with profits going to lots of charities, is a big, big plus. Long may it continue, and with early bird tickets already on sale. From what we have seen on Facebook they are selling well, so do yourself a favour and check out Carfest 2024, fast. Here’s to next year.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe