Camping, Drinking, Eating, Fires, First Aid, Lost Kids, Keeping Your Stuff Safe…
The stage for Shambala is a beautiful country estate in the heart of the English countryside with stunning lakes, lush flat fields, woodlands and meadows.
We provide fresh drinking water taps around the perimeter of the camp sites and throughout the entertainment areas, good toilets (many compost loos) and access to hot showers.
Camping is all reasonably flat. At Shambino 2021, Shambala 2022 and 2023, not one single tent was left! We are not the kind of event where you leave your tent – it costs us money and it’s wasteful. Please keep campsites tidy too!
We have 24 hour stewarding and security in the campsites, so if you need to ask a question, grab a friendly Oxfam Steward, either at one of the Campsite Hubs or as they pass.
Please observe the quietness curfew of midnight for those who need their beauty sleep – there’s plenty to keep you busy until late in the entertainment areas.
Camp Fires
After good behaviour over the last few years, we have been allowed by the estate to have fires in the campsites and camper-van fields. Fires must be:
• Off the ground (i.e. in a fire-wok)
• 2m from any tent and 3m from any vehicle
• Attended at all times and kept well away from gas canisters and cookers
• Campsite Stewards will put out any fires which are not off the ground
Firewood is on sale at Public Info from 9am – 7pm daily. The firewood is sustainably harvested from the Estate and all profits made will go towards managing the Estate’s woodland. Please do not scavenge wood from surrounding areas as they form valuable habitats. Please take note of the fire points (fire towers and Camp Hubs) and return used gas canisters from camping stoves to the Recycling Exchange for disposal and recycling.
Cash, Credit Cards and the Camp Shop
We have an onsite cash machine (open 24hrs) and a camp shop selling all sorts of useful stuff from nappies to chocolate and from batteries to bread.
At Shambala 2024 all our festival bars, food traders, merchandise points, our public info point and the tobacco kiosk, accepted contactless card payments (including chip and pin processing and mobile phone activated payments such as Apple pay).
Our bars, merchandise points, the tobacco kiosk and the public info point will not accept cash.
There will be on-site ATMs at Shambala, but cash-free contactless payments play an important role in improving security and safety for all and simplifying operations. Please choose contactless/card payments if you can!
Drinks
Got a thirst on? Then visit one of the many bars on site serving over 50 draught lines; the finest ciders, ales, lagers and sumptuous cocktails, designed by our in house ‘mixologist’s’. They await your parched lips! All at reasonable prices and with contactless payment available, there’s less need to carry cash. Help support our range, suppliers and fund the festival rather than multinational supermarkets!
Please remember to Bring a Bottle for water, we have loads of refill points across site. Plus your hot-drink mug, as we’re done away with disposables! We’ll put the kettle on….
First Aid and Welfare
The Medical team welcomes you and your injuries to our Festival Medical Centre (please see map in the programme or app for location). Open 24 hours a day, pop in for any reason however minor it seems.
The Samaritans welfare team are next door, ready with a cup of tea and calm space to help you with whatever you may need.
Food
They say “you are what you eat” and we pride ourselves in selecting the best food providers on the festival circuit, providing delicious cuisine from around the world all at reasonable prices, with strict ethics around sourcing produce.
At Shambala, we have always endeavoured to find ways to reduce the environmental impact of our festival and we can’t help but feeling there is a big, meaty elephant in the room. So, since 2016, we’ve been committed to providing the most eye-popping, mouthwatering, colourful, hearty array of cuisine without a single bit of meat or fish on sale. Not a sausage.
Note that we allow people to bring their own meat onto site, but we ask strongly that you either give the meat-free a chance, or get into the spirit of the ethics and choose to bring meat or fish that meets very high standards.
Keeping Your Stuff Safe – The ‘Tent Watch’ Campaign
Sadly, tent thefts are becoming common at events across the UK. Our Tent Watch campaign has been amazingly successful, helping us to keep tent thefts to only a handful. We are determined to keep it this way, and we need to work together as a festival community to achieve this. Tentwatch is a partnership between festival goers and out staff.
Five things we’re doing:
- We have significantly increased security and stewarding in all of the campsites to maintain a reassuring vigilance and be on hand to help generally
- There will be seven new ‘Campsite Hubs’, which will provide a 24 hour info point and become the centre of camping ‘neighbourhoods’, ready to receive news of any tent thefts so we can act super-quickly.
- The perimeter will be more secure, with more fencing, lighting, increased security, ferocious animals with sharp teeth, a piranha infested moat and a dedicated evictions team to seamlessly deport undesirables and fence-jumpers.
- Pass out system – this year if you need to pop out to your car in the carpark your wristband will be zapped, so we can check you should be coming back in.
- We have a specialist campsite response team (with serious skills), and will be recruiting rangers to spread the word about how we can keep things tight.
Five things you can do:
- Don’t bring unnecessary valuables
- Use the locker service onsite to securely store valuables – see information below
- Be sensible with your stuff in your campsite/ in tents at night (e.g. don’t leave it by the door!)
- Know your neighbours – create a community and look out for each other
- Report ANYTHING suspicious or any thefts immediately to a steward, member of security team or Campsite Hub so we can respond quickly OR ring the onsite 24hr hotline (see program for number).
The key to all of this is working together. Shambala is already a tight community of lovely people and we can easily make it difficult for thieves to begin to target the event. We are our own Community CCTV.
Lockers for the Weekend
Keep your valuables safe at the festival by using our secure lock up unit – provided by CND and run by volunteers with all income going to the campaign. You’ve got two options.
- A4 envelope – car keys, passports, bank cards etc.
- A shelf space suitable for one large rucksack, if you need more space than that simply buy a second space!
Lockers aren’t bookable in advance, just turn up on site to book yours!
Lost Kids & Adults
Should you lose them, or they lose you, our professional Lost Kids Team are at hand 24 hours a day. The Lost Kids Tent is next to the Medical Centre. Please report lost kids to any steward or official immediately and follow their advice – we have procedures – and they work!
Sexual Safety
We are proud to be part of an industry-wide initiative promoting sexual safety at festivals – we believe that everyone should feel (and be) safe at all times, and that any form of uninvited advance (physical or verbal) is absolutely unacceptable. Shambala is already a very strong and conscientious community, with very few reports of such incidents over the years, but we strongly encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed sexual harassment to report it to a steward or security – we will take all reports seriously and take appropriate action. Don’t be a bystander!
Sustainability
We’ve been working on avoiding plastic for a long time – but we need your help, so please be mindful and avoid introducing these pointless plastics to our ecosystem:
- Glitter – all that glitters is… unfortunately pretty damaging for the environment. Even the ‘eco’ or ‘bio’ stuff isn’t much better, so best to swerve it altogether.
- Face wipes – 11 billion wet wipes are used annually – even ‘biodegradable’ are bad news. We recommend using reusable pads to remove make-up!
- Disposable vapes – 2 disposable vapes are thrown away a second. They are utterly impossible to recycle. Please bring only reusables!
- Disposable costumes – Please do craft your costumes from second hand or recyclable materials
- Plastic packaging – Please try to avoid bringing snack attacks in plastic – which you may not eat. We find lots of un-eaten crisps, bread and squished bananas.
- Smokers – Avoid plastic tips and switch to biodegradable for your roll ups. You can purchase these from our tobacco kiosks on site.
Menstruators – Heaps of menstrual products are riddled with plastic, which are environmentally damaging – and reusable alternatives are much kinder on your body too. Check out this amazing guide to learn about eco-friendly alternatives for or visit the Red Sea Travel Agency on site for more information.