Across the fields of tipis, shelters and dome tents, the loudspeakers boomed: "Good morning, campers. Hi-de-hi!" Rob da Bank's family festival at Lulworth Castle was back for its fourth year with big names, bigger crowds (30,000), and what appeared to be Dorset's entire supply of gardening trolleys, perfect for hauling kit and kids around the site.
Headlining the Friday night, Blondie banged out hit after hit in impressive style, but the highlight had to be the Cuban Brothers. Performing in the Cocktails & Dreams tent, the comedy quartet offered not-quite-so-family-orientated fun with their super-snug fringed spandex, flabby midriffs and scarily superb breakdancing.
Legendary CBeebies favourite Mr Tumble kept the kids – and the big kids – enthralled on the castle stage on Saturday, and later a brilliant performance from House of Pain had even 10-year-olds doing some moshing-lite ("Mummy, I think I heard quite a lot of swearing …"). An emotional set from Mark Ronson was another highlight, with two versions of Valerie topping and tailing his set, the second with vocals provided by the crowd.
For some, Sunday's events centred on the wonderful acrobatics of the insect circus and trips to the knitting tent to feed their children'snew-found addiction to finger knitting, but before that Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds upped the folk quota with delicate and witty arrangements of 80s songs such as I Fought the Law and Kraftwerk's The Model, on mandolin, fiddle and uilleann pipes.
Headlining that evening, Primal Scream had mums and dads on their feet for a blast through the 20-year-old Screamadelica – featuring a misty-eyed singalong to Come Together, surrounded by fairylight-decked trolleys of sleeping children.
