Woo hoo! Festival season is just around the corner and with a whole host of them to escape to these days, there’s nothing we love more than discovering a cool little gem that genuinely stands out from the crowd.
So, say hello to Samphire... voted NOEA’s Best Small Festival in its first year (2016), it’s a beautiful boutique party by the sea and it’s back in the stunning surroundings of Exmoor National Park, from July 7th to 9th.
Festival founders Flora and Josh say Samphire’s ‘wild, salty and good for you’ :) so obviously that got us thinking... and we caught up with Flora to find out a little bit more! Here are her answers to four questions we thought you’d love to know the answers to:
1. Why did you decide to create Samphire? Can you tell us a bit about how it came to be?
I’ve been visiting the area around Porlock since I was a tiny child. Me and my three older brothers and sister had some amazing holidays there and it’s just so, so beautiful. Years later, when we all went to our first festival together, I always thought back to Porlock and what a stunning place it would be to bring people together for a festival. When I met my boyfriend Josh and took him to Porlock for the first time, he said exactly the same thing... before I’d even mentioned it to him! We knew then that we just had to go for it and we decided to make it happen. We’ve been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride since, but we’re so excited to be back for year two.
2. What are the most brilliant things about the festival?
The reaction people have when they see the site is the first thing! The backdrop is just amazing. It almost doesn’t feel real. It’s beautiful when the sky’s blue and the sun’s shining, but it’s equally stunning on a moody day - it’s really dramatic then. The place is completely magical. For me, a truly great festival is also all about how the event ‘feels’ and we’ve got such a lovely group of performers and people that come to have fun and make Samphire such a special place to spend time.
Me and Josh love music. We’re both DJ’s and so we’ve spent ages carefully choosing musicians from different genres. We’re both foodies too, so there’s a great selection of award winning street food - delicious stuff from the best very creators. The whole feel of Samphire is also really playful. We’ve got giant games and lots of surprises in store!
Every weekend in the run up to the festival, we have art weekends at our house where friends and family come to create unique bits that feature at the festival. We’ve just made a 7ft deckchair! :)
3. What are you personally looking forward to most this year?
We’re having a record-breaking, massive, human Snakes and Ladders game on the hill this year! There’ll be playground slides to slide down if you land on a snake and it'll be brilliant! I can’t wait to see Crazy P and The Flamingods play too. I think Josh is most excited about The Club House. They’re a production company that are creating some immersive theatre and games for us this year and they've previously been part of Wildnerness and the Secret Garden festival, so expect something very cool.
4. Tell us a secret about Samphire that no-one else knows :)
Last year we hid a big golden duck on the site! We thought someone would find it and win tickets to Samphire 2017. The only thing was we totally forgot to tell anyone about it and my mum found it once the festival was over ;) This year, the golden duck is back… but we want everyone to know about it! Whoever finds it gets a free ticket to Samphire 2018 and we’re also going to have some smaller brightly coloured ducks around the festival. They'll be easier to find and if you spot one, you’ll get a little perk - a free drink or an ice cream - something to put a smile on your face :).
Know what? We think we’ll be smiling A LOT at Samphire. We’re absolutely loving the sound of the playful details and we’ll definitely be on the look out for that golden duck!
Fancy coming to dance by the sea with us? There’s only a few tickets left and you can get yours right here.
And… we’ve got a cool competition coming to Twitter and Instagram soon. You can win two tickets to the festival, so watch our social media feeds for that one. We’ll be tweeting live updates from the festival as well, and blogging about it afterwards too.
Roll on July and bring on the Snakes & Ladders!
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