The festival is set in the beautiful Poltimore House and Grounds, which has the most fascinating history. It was originally built as an aristocratic house, but has since been a girls' school, a wartime home and a hospital, before the NHS sold it in 1975. After having burned down not once, but twice, it was bought by the Poltimore House Trust at the turn of the century, who have since been working hard to help restore the site.

I've been lucky enough to have been involved in the organisation of the festival for the past two years as an ambassador (it's basically my job to tell everyone how great Poltimore is and convince them all to buy tickets), but this year I was also invited to attend as part of a theatre production that I directed, which helped give me a brand new perspective on the day.


As well as having the opportunity to help set up the festival and help out on the day, we also had the joy of watching an audience of the public watch the performance that we'd been working so hard on. Set in the grounds of the house, our cast performed underneath the most beautiful, enormous tree I've ever seen in my life - the perfect setting for our adaptation of Enid Blyton's 'The Enchanted Wood'. We performed fairly early on in the day, which luckily gave us the rest of the time to enjoy the festival ourselves - and enjoy we did.

The beauty of Poltimore is that there really is something for everyone - and at an incredibly reasonable price of £12 for students. We made sure to take full advantage of all of the amazing theatre that was on offer - a lot of which was performed by our own friends from uni - as well as having a good old wander around the house to admire all of the amazing artwork on display.

In the breaks between watching theatre performances and listening to live music around the house and grounds, there was an array of different catering trucks fit to satisfy all tastes. My favourite truck from last year, Stinky Vintage, returned again with their amazing menu of gourmet cheese toasties. This year I went for the Funguy Fromage, filled with Gouda, Portobello mushroom and a homemade cheese sauce, served with crisps and a small leafy salad, and let me tell you - it did not disappoint. If ever you get the chance to sample a toastie from this adorable yellow van, I cannot recommend it enough.


The range of music performed on the day was also fantastic, with wonderfully chilled vibes. I particularly enjoyed Clara Bond and Matthew and the Atlas, and I can't round off this blog post without talking about one of my all-time favourite musicians, John Elliot a.k.a. The Little Unsaid. I first saw him perform at Poltimore last year and absolutely fell in love, before attending a local gig he played in association with Poltimore earlier this academic year. He was back at the festival this year, performing this time inside the actual house, which provided the most perfect, atmospheric performance space for his folky arrangements. My favourite song of his is called 'Day is Golden' and I seriously recommend that you all go and check it out right now - he really is amazing.

There's no doubt about it - Poltimore really does have something for everyone (including meditation, yoga in the woods, slacklining and laser tag!) and has been one of my favourite days of uni for two consecutive years. If you happen to be in the South West next summer, I cannot recommend this charming little festival enough. It's guaranteed to bring you an awful lot of joy.


Find out more about Poltimore Festival at poltimorefestival.co.uk.