bad panda UK

bad panda UK Travel by plane, train, car, boat or campervan - we try to fit as many adventures into our lives as possible while collecting sunsets.

The Great Estate festival.Dave did his best to fix the awning arm (that I'd broken when we were camping at Longleat), we...
04/07/2026

The Great Estate festival.

Dave did his best to fix the awning arm (that I'd broken when we were camping at Longleat), we saw some really good bands but the best has to be Skunk Anansie - we saw them at Camper Calling years ago and they were brilliant then as well.

We saw some quirky acts as well - MC Hammersmith and Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer (so good we watched him twice) have to top that list. Both very funny, both very talented! The song that's been stuck in my head since the festival was by The Lady Garden and it was called something like 'I never said that'.

We also discovered that one of the stages was on top of a bus that sells rum. Not just any rum, they sold rum slushies! It made up for the lack of Pimm's bus (although the main bar did sell Pimm's so we didn't miss out).

We are officially world record holders, kind of. We were at the festival when the Guinness World Records recognised Repl...
04/07/2026

We are officially world record holders, kind of. We were at the festival when the Guinness World Records recognised Replika Festival as the World's Biggest Tribute Festival. I'm counting sitting in a field all weekend as helping them earn it. I've even ordered the participation certificate, it's not often you can say you were there when the history books were rewritten 😊

This was the renamed Sausage & Cider fest - It came back with a new name, 2 extra stages, 108 tribute acts & they even arranged gorgeous weather (I did a lot of shade bathing). It was brilliant, if anything there was too much choice of what to watch (not helped by my mobility being almost none existent at times so moving between stages was difficult - the TENS machine was almost permanently attached to my back).

Absolutely brilliant festival, we saw some great tribute acts & some not so great ones (The Really Hot Chilli Peppers singer kept forgetting his words & the Green Haze guy had clearly been at the bar or something else long before he got on stage from what I've heard).

Best Act - difficult to choose between Guns 2 Roses, Johnny 2 Bad (UB40) & Seriously Collins. Guns 2 Roses would just beat them though because it's more my kind of music. Plus, Phoebe, their 14 year old guest guitarist on Sweet Child Of Mine was brilliant. Dave would say his favourites were Johnny 2 Bad (UB40), The Kate Bush Experience & Seriously Collins.

Big thanks to the organisers for letting us camp in the accessible field after I explained about my back & issues moving. Thanks to my 'toilet friend' who was always in the same queue as me and let me go first, helped me in/out, told me some of his life stories & was a gentleman - I asked Dave to go and thank him & shake his hand as we left because he'd been so nice. Thanks as well to all those people who admitted they were just being lazy & let those of us who genuinely needed the accessible toilets go in front of them. It all made a weekend I was dreading (after being in A&E unable to move the previous Sunday) a little bit easier.

Dave became a train driver for the day and I think it's fair to say he loved it. Now, can I tell you anything about the ...
04/07/2026

Dave became a train driver for the day and I think it's fair to say he loved it.

Now, can I tell you anything about the train? It was on tracks, it was a train, it had comfy seats, the afternoon tea was nice (especially the cakes).....oh the signal box talk was interesting, although I think the man doing the talk was a bit stressed by our attempt at "how many people can you fit in a signal box at the same time".

We then went to watch Nick Mohammed the following day. Very funny, very intelligent and a great showman. I was amazed we got there on time because we'd had to go home to swap vehicles, drive to wherever the show was, get ready and be at the table eating by 5pm. We made it with a minute to spare! Thanks to Mr P for the tickets and for getting us across several hundred miles on time!

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