The family friendly version of Bestival, Camp Bestival, curated by Rob and Josie da Bank and situated in the beautiful grounds of Lulworth Castle,has been running for 12 years, and Naomi has been leading a growing team of face painters there since the very beginning.
Back in the early days, Naomi didn't know many professional face painters, so decided to teach her friends and family to face paint, so that she could take a solid, trustworthy team with her; albeit slightly lacking in skill and experience! It proved to be a good move as at festivals there are always challenges along the way, and it pays to have a good, strong, loyal team behind you! After being inundated the first year, the team had to be doubled the next year and then tripled to cope with demand! It became a dream team of friends and family, a close knit group who met once a year for a very special, communal festival experience.
With a huge tent (provided by our amazing friends at Bigtop Mania) and, at it's peak, a team of 25 painters, it is the largest face painting operation you are likely to see at a festival. With inspiration taken from working as part if the Glastonbury team, there is no rota, just people working and taking breaks as they please, there is one queue manned by a team of helpers - all in the family of course - and it just works, because of the dedication and loyalty of all the team members. It's great to see how new friendships have formed over the years within the team, and many of them now have their own face painting businesses.
We decorate thousands of faces over the weekend, everyone leaves the tent with a smile on their face, and there are always positive comments flying around which are lovely to hear, after all the hard work that's been put in.
As a tradition, we all go in fancy dress on the Saturday night which is always a lot of fun! Themes have included animals, pirates, disco divas, enchanted forest, old ladies, all going as Tina Turner with unending choruses of "Simply the Best" and this year as Clark Kent/Superman!
How lovely to be able to make so many people happy and have so much fun at the same time; it really is the best job in the world!
If you'd like to see more about what we offer, please click here... https://www.poppyandperle.com/services
