It’s very much the season of festivals as we bask in the summer sunshine, and while London baked in a heatwave a fortnight ago, I packed up our long-term Bailey motorhome and headed towards the cooler coast.

The destination? A festival that I’ve wanted to go to since I came across it when doing festival round-ups for the magazine; the one and only Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall. Sadly, this year marks the last festival at the estate for the foreseeable future, so I was determined to make the most of it. 

My pilgrimage to the very last Port Eliot Festival started with a flying visit to Brighton, with its bright lights, relaxed atmosphere and creativity.

A friend of mine, who lives and works in Brighton running her own VR marketing agency, was launching a project very close to her heart, a 360 Virtual Reality film called Anonymous. So I pitched up at Brighton Caravan and Motorhome Site for the night so I could be there for the very first private viewing.

The next day I headed west, sticking to A-roads rather than the major motorways, which I felt were sure to get jammed up as the heatwave set in. I meandered through West Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset and Devon, eventually arriving at the festival site, near Saltash. 

The next few days were a whirlwind of talks, music, delicious food and cookery demonstrations, theatre, and exploring the many areas of the festival. 

There were workshops and crafting demonstrations, art galleries and installations in hidden parts of the estate, over a dozen different areas and stages with various talks, comedy shows and music, cookery demonstrations and food trucks, and various shopping stalls to name just some of the things to do at the festival.

As well as all that, there were opportunities to meet authors (I picked up signed copies of the latest books from Patrick Gale and Ben Smith, for starters), musicians, fellow festival goers and even staff and volunteers. In fact, on my first evening there, I had a great time chatting to a group of volunteers and their friends and throughout the weekend chatted with all sorts of people – that’s just the sort of festival it is!

To read all about what I got up to, look out for the full feature in a future issue of Practical Motorhome! You can subscribe now to make sure that it’s delivered straight to your door, too.