If, as a kid, you were a scout, a brownie, a member of Woodcraft Folk…or if you ever wanted to be, you will be familiar with the joys of a summer camp. This isn’t the US idea of cabins s’mores and spirit sticks. Rather, it is tents, chilly evenings with hot chocolate, parties and portaloos a plenty. Well, did you know, within touching distance of London (but seemingly a world away in Kent) is a summer camp just for grown ups?! This is your complete guide to Camp Wildfire!

We created this guide to Camp Wildfire after being invited to attend. All opinions are outr own.

How to Buy Camp Wildfire Tickets

First things first, follow Camp Wildfire on social media and sign up for their newsletters on the Camp Wildfire website. This is where you get all kinds of ticket drop information and have a chance to see just what the camp is all about. Once registered, you will be sent a link to buy tickets when they are released. It is good to know which kind of ticket you are hoping to buy before they go on sale as they go fast! So here are some points to consider:

Weekend One or Weekend Two?

Traditionally there are two weekends of Camp Wildfire, one at the end of August and then the following weekend in September. The first weekend tends to sell out more quickly as it is the long bank holiday weekend. If you want to go for it then be on the ball on ticket release day! For those coming from abroad, you will get cheaper flights if you opt for weekend two.

How Many Credits Do You Want?

Elementary, 60 credits – If you are squeezed for cash, then this is the ticket for you. Picking this option will limit your activity choices a little. as you probably won’t want to blow two thirds of your credit on one hour long trapeze lesson or cocktail class.

Standard, 120 credits – This should allow you enough credits to have a fun-packed weekend with one or two of the high-ticket items.

Dynamo, Unlimited activities and priority enrolment – Feeling flush? Then go nuts and get the unlimited credit option. This means you take all the classes that time allows and not only that but you will be given priority access to book them all.

In all honesty, the standard ticket is probably the best option for most people, especially if you want to try lots of things but would like a little downtime for lunch.

Bear in mind that you can buy extra credits if you are just short of enough. It is also worth knowing that you can pay for your tickets in instalments, spreading the cost and possibly allowing you to get a higher level of ticket.

More about credits later…

Camp Wildfire Accommodation Options

As you go through the booking process you will be given the chance to choose an accommodation option.

General Camping

Included in your ticket is a free tent pitch in the general camping area. If you bring your own tent and you don’t have to pay anything extra. (Get there early to bag a spot away from the bathrooms). The general camping area has toilets, showers and a cooking area.

If you are bringing your own tent, don’t forget tent pegs (the ground can be very dry so bring good ones) and a mallet to drive them in.

If you don’t own a tent. don’t want to carry a tent or are feeling a bit bougie, there are several other options.

Pre-Pitched Camping

If you don’t fancy dragging a tent with you or don’t want to buy one just for this adventure, you can get Camp Wildfire to pitch a tent for you. It will be there and ready to dump your bags in as soon as you arrive. We opted for this and arrived in the rain. It was a delight to dive straight into the tent rather than battling with our own in the rain.

This also prevents those awful abandoned domes that litter festival fields the country over. Don’t buy a cheap, rubbish pop-up and then ditch it. Instead, rent a decent tent and then Camp Wildfire can reuse it the following year.

You can hire airbeds and camp chairs too.

Boutique Camping

For those that want to do the weekend in style, there is a whole separate boutique camping section. Here you’ll find beautiful, large glamping tents with double beds. There are bell tents, larger empower tents and huge Airstream trailers. The Airstreams have their own bathrooms which is a delight! In this area, there are luxury toilets and showers and a lot less achy back groaning.

Extras here include bottles of bubbly and electrical sockets.

Live-In Vehicles

For those with a passion for #vanlife, you can pay for a vehicle as long as your van fits into the 7x3m or 9x4m pitches. The vehicle area has toilets and showers so even if your camper doesn’t have these, you’re set. If the rain sets in, you’ll be grateful for the solid roof!

You can pay extra for an electrical hook-up (which might make you a few new friends).

Everything You Need to Know About Camp Wildfire Credits

As mentioned above, every Camp Wildfire ticket includes activity credits. These act as your currency to book all the fun and games that require credits to attend. Each activity has a different credit amount so how many you can attend depends on those that you pick.

You’ll find that high-octane or small-group activities usually cost more. These are all 35 – 45 credits:

• Quadbiking
• Cocktail Mixology Class
• Tree Rope Course
• Terrarium Making
• Stand Up Paddleboarding

Check out our Our Full Camp Wildfire Review – A Weekend of Sun, Fun and Squirrels!

Some activities cost a lot less so you can get loads in, even on the lowest price tickets. For example, these are all between 5 and 10 credits:

• Choir
• Dodgeball
• Dirty Dancing
• Improv Comedy
• Swing Dance
• Nerf Wars

There are also free things to do that are open for most of the day. You can play a quick round of mini golf, leap from a tower onto a huge inflatable bag, throw yourself down the slip and slide, float above camp in a static hot air balloon or find a cosy corner in the board games tent.

Check out our 2023 review Bungees, Beats & Badgers

How to Complete Your Camp Wildfire Enrolment

Once you have your ticket, you will be sent communication about enrolment which opens closer to the time. This is when you get to pick all your activities and the times you’d like to do them. You will see a list of times and all the sessions that begin at that time next to them. You select the one you want, pick who is taking part (yourselves and or others linked to your booking) and enrol.

It can seem a little manic if you aren’t prepared so we have some top tips for you:

1.) Ahead of enrolment, you’ll get a chance to see what is on offer and how many credits each one costs. Take some time and create a few different lists before doing some maths to work out which combination works for you within your credit budget.

2.) Use a desktop or laptop if you can. The enrolment website isn’t overly phone friendly. You will have a much better experience on a bigger screen and you’ll be speedier too.

3.) It is wise to have a rough plan sketched out. Pop it on paper and have it to hand. As you book things, cross them out so you stay on track. If there is something you are especially excited about, or that is only taking place once or twice, book that first and then work your way back through the order of importance.

4.) If you and the other members of your party decide to do the same activities then it is easier to book for both of you at once. If you are doing different things then it might be easier to book separately but have a call or chat ready for negotiations and excited squealing.

What to Expect from the Camp Wildfire Activities

There is a huge range of things on offer at Camp Wildfire. Quiet activities that require careful hands (terrariums anyone?). Noisy and bouncy activities (cheerleading, burlesque, swing dance and drumming). Things for artistic types (tie-dye) and for the less arty (tie-dye). Really physical challenges (free climbing course and trapeze). There was even a forensic activity in 2022 which tickled my true crime funny bone.

Each session is run by a fun and friendly teacher who will guide beginners and improvers alike through some of the skills of their passion. We came away with fun tie-dye souvenirs, sore tummies from the trapeze, and a newfound respect for people who can play the ukulele. We were both really, really bad at ukulele but the teachers were so kind (and a little bemused at our awful fingering).

Plus, if you do well (show the most improvement, help others in the group etc) then you could earn patrol points to help your patrol to the Camp Wildfire Cup.

What Are the Wildfire Patrols?

Camp Wildfire attendees can opt to join one of four groups for the weekend. During the day, every is all mixed up but at the patrol games, you sit with your patrol and scream your lungs out for your patrol members as they compete! (more about the games later).

There are suggestions of traits for each patrol (you can see them here) so you need to consider:

• Whether you are a night owl or a daytime kid
• If you are feeling sociable or a little more introverted
• How much energy you want to throw at the weekend

I self-appointed myself as a squirrel, what do you think?

“Stealthy Squirrels: Cheeky, entertaining and sociable. Squirrels love having fun and are full of energy.
They make the most of the daylight hours so at night they are often happy to take it easy, somewhere cosy and warm. SUPER POWER = Energy, COLOUR = Yellow“

Camp Wildfire

This is not something you need to decide before you buy your tickets, however, you may want to pick your patrol before you go. Sure you can buy things when you arrive but it’s fun to take appropriate clothes with you. We took a blend of yellow and squirrel things and it was great to be immediately identifiable as one of the team.

“Squirrel til I die!! Squirrel til I die!!”

What Happens in the Evenings at Camp Wildfire?

Every evening, once the main activities have ceased, the camp gathers together for the Camp Games. Here the four patrols battle for the Camp Wildfire Cup in a series of challenges, races and hilarious games. It’s a great place to meet your fellow patrol members and to really soak up the spirit of the camp.

Alternatively, if crowds aren’t your thing, you’ll find the food stalls empty so it’s a perfect time to grab dinner.

When the sun begins to set, the evening entertainment kicks off. This is all included and takes part over three different tents:

• There is a main stage tent which hosts fun bands and kooky acts. We were treated to Charlotte Church and a super fun dance act called Lycra 80s Party. These were both so, so much fun!
• A little further away is a DJ tent with a bar. It is a great place to have a proper dance!
• Finally, there is a tent with talks, stand-up comedy and other more talk-based entertainment. On our first evening, we saw Eddie the Eagle giving a great talk followed by some fun comedy.

Then we went and danced our socks off for another hour or so before bed.

Do I Have to Pay For Anything Extra at Camp Wildfire?

There are some things at camp that cost extra and can’t be bought with credits. There is a spa area which offers treatments and you can even book a session in the wood-fired hot tub. It might be worth weighing up whether you need so many credits if you would rather spend some time and money on this instead. Trust me when I say the hot tub is worth it for those stretched and abused muscles the day after the more physical activities and I regret that we didn’t get booked in last year.

You do not have any food or drink included in your ticket apart from the drinking water from the on site taps. You can bring food to prepare or snacks to munch on so in theory, you don’t need to pay for any extra food. However, they do have some great food trucks/stalls offering hot street food from around the world. We brought our breakfast and lunch from home (prepacked croissants etc) but treated ourselves to a hot dinner every night.

Check out our Our Full Camp Wildfire Review – A Weekend of Sun, Fun and Squirrels!

Camp Wildfire allows every camper to bring in 6 cans of wine, beer or premixed drinks (cocktails or G&T cans) each. We brought along some M&S cocktails and weird cocktail balls that we found on Instagram. The balls were nice-ish but full of chemicals so it is M&S all the way in 2023! Again, in theory, you could just have these but if you want any additional alcohol, the bars are priced like a London pub. We bought a couple of drinks each day but found that we wanted to be fresh for the next morning’s adventures so we didn’t need any more than that.

What to Pack for Camp Wildfire

No guide to Camp Wildfire would be complete without a full packing list.

You can download mine here:

There is a general store which sells all kinds of goodies that you may forget but we don’t think you’ll need it if you follow our Camp Wildfire packing list!

Oh, and don’t bother bringing:

• Fire – In previous years, camping stoves were encouraged in cooking areas but the hot weather of 2022 meant no flames of any kind were allowed. This may change again but just to be on the safe side, leave your fire makers at home.
• Glitter – Even bio-degradable glitter isn’t great and Camp Wildfire is trying to reduce its environmental impact. Leave the sparkles at home and opt for fun face paints instead.
• Single-use Plastics – There is a no single-use plastic policy at Camp Wildfire so join in and bring things that can be easily recycled or reused.
• Cash – Camp Wildfire is cashless so forget the money and bring a card for payments. (Don’t rely on Apple Pay because if your phone dies, you’ll be broke).

A Few Top Tips for Camp Wildfire

Factor in Some Recovery Time

Running from activity to activity can be exhausting so allow yourself a little downtime. Blocking out an hour for lunch gives you time to cook something, grab something from your tent or queue for a food truck without giving yourself indigestion.

Don’t Be Afraid to Go Solo

Camp Wildfire was full of the friendliest people! You won’t be alone for long (unless you really want to be). We camped as a couple but had zero trouble meeting and chatting with people in our separate activities as well as during the Wildfire Games and evening parties. Seriously, Camp Wildfire is so wholesome and everybody is just there to have a great time together with everyone else.

Plus, if you want to find a new love interest, there is the Cupid’s Club Here you can leave little “Just Missed You” notes and maybe find a fun match.

Synchronise Your Schedules

You don’t have to do the same things as your tent mates but it is nice to book things at the same time so you can meet up between sessions.

So you are coming to Camp Wildfire with a really fit friend or a truly bookish bud, nobody says you have to do or like the same things. You could skip off for a beatboxing class while they go buzzing around a track on a quadbike.

However, what is nice, is the chance to meet up between activities to share your experiences and grab a drink, rest in your tents or have a healthy lunch of biscuits and crackers from your backpacks. If you are on completely different schedules it can feel a little like you haven’t seen them in a week when you do finally catch up with each other. Better to be lazy river floaties occasionally bumping together than ships in the night.

Make Sure you Try Something New

Sure it was fun to take part in burlesque dance, swing dance and choir but I sort of knew what I was doing already. However, the challenge of learning new skills was more much exciting. Honestly, I was rubbish at the aerial hoop (no core strength at all) and we both truly sucked at ukulele…and juggling….maybe motor skills are not our strong point. However, it was incredibly fun to give them all a go! I would urge you when picking your activities to include a couple of things you’ve never considered before. You might find a hidden skill or a new passion. Alternatively, you might suck at it, but have the best time finding that out!

Don’t Give Up

Enrolment is a scary moment. You have a list of ideas and a rough idea of a schedule ready to go but, “Oh No!”, the activity you want is all booked up. Well, never fear, there is a chance that a spot will pop up. People change things and move their schedules around all the way up to the hour itself so keep double-checking. Some activities also allow walk-ups but these tend to be the more open things which don’t require safety equipment or similar.

Check out our 2022 review – A Weekend of Sun, Fun & Squirrels

Final Thoughts for Your Complete Guide to Camp Wildfire

We had an absolute blast at Camp Wildfire and found that the more ino we had, the more we could relax and just enjoy it. That is why I have tried to cover lots on here to get you started. The organisers hop on Instagram and Facebook Live to answer questions in real-time which is great if we have missed any information that you need.

See you there!

“Whose Nuts? Deez Nuts!”

Rosie xx