Celebrate the Great Outdoors with Project Wild Thing at Camp Bestival

When was the last time you climbed a tree? Or picked wild berries? Or followed a stream up a valley? Or slept out under the stars? At Camp Bestival – which takes place from July 31st to August 3rd at Lulworth Castle on Dorset’s dramatic coastline – we’re already passionate about bringing people of all ages together to connect in the fields. But we want to do more to help.

Us humans are losing our connection with nature. We spend more and more time inside looking at screens and less time in the wonderful, great outdoors. We are turning into glassy-eyed zombies. And for the first time in history, our kid’s generation will have a lower life expectancy than their parents.

Something has to change, and fast! 

So, in a festival exclusive, Team CB have teamed up with Project Wild Thing: a new and unique, people-powered movement to help children and adults reconnect with nature. We all need ‘wild time’ in the great outdoors to keep our minds and bodies healthy, and Project Wild Thing is leading the way in encouraging, provoking, supporting and campaigning for ways to help us get back to nature.

Rob da Bank says: “OK, so here’s the sketch. I’ve got three young kids and lots of screens in our house. Luckily, we live in the countryside but they’re still strangely attracted to these blinking screens. When I watched Project Wild Thing, I immediately clicked with what the Wild Thing crew were trying to do… get kids outside and communing with nature in a nutshell! I’m so pleased to be teaming up with them at Camp Bestival and we’re so excited about this Wild side of Camp that the whole site will be infiltrated by Wildness and Wild Things. Prepare to go Wild!”

Exclusively at Camp Bestival and for the first time at any festival ever, we will be taking over the Dingly Dell and beyond to present a Project Wild Thing Programme of nature-focused activities, workshops, gatherings and talks across the whole weekend. These will be hosted by leading partners in the Wild Network: the group of organisations and individuals who are committed to the Project Wild Thing movement.

Project Wild Thing’s David Bond commented: “Project Wild Thing is all about how children need to get outdoors and into nature. We’re really passionate about connecting young people and adults with the outdoors because it makes them fitter, it makes them healthier, it makes them happier, and it makes them develop better. So there’s loads of reasons to get outdoors, it’s really exciting”.

Throughout the weekend you and your kids can enjoy a whole plethora of outdoor crafts and nature workshops, learn how to build a fire, identify plants and animals, build a shelter or make a den, identify birds and listen for birdsong. Practice tree climbing, campfire cooking and rolling down hills. Gather together under the trees or around a fire for story-time. Enjoy the wonders of falconry, learn from Wild experts and be inspired by nature’s greatest adventurers. Become confident and armed to explore the great outdoors once again and reconnect with the incredible world we live in.

www.campbestival.net