Hesfes
Encyclopedia
HESFES has grown from a small camp at Monkton Wylde farm, Charmouth
Charmouth
Charmouth is a village at the mouth of the River Char in West Dorset, England, with a population of 1,687 according to the 2001 census.-The village:...
, Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
(1998, 1999) - advertised in the Education Otherwise
Education Otherwise
Education Otherwise is a registered charity based in England for families whose children are being educated otherwise than at school, and for those who wish to uphold the freedom of families to take responsibility for the education of their children...
newsletter December 1997 as an EO-By-The-Seaside-Weekend-Camp; moving onto a larger site at Manor Farm Charmouth
Charmouth
Charmouth is a village at the mouth of the River Char in West Dorset, England, with a population of 1,687 according to the 2001 census.-The village:...
, Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, (2000–2005)). Between 2006-8 HESFES was hosted on Mersea Island
Mersea Island
Mersea Island is the most easterly inhabited island in the United Kingdom, located marginally off the coast of Essex, England, to the southeast of Colchester. It is situated in the estuary area of the Blackwater and Colne rivers and has an area of around...
, near Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
. In 2009 the Event was moved again, this time to The Hop Farm Family Park, since it was considered that the festival had outgrown campsite venues (since the festival has grown from around 50 families in 1998 to around 1500 families in 2006).
This year, 2011, HESFES is moving to a more central site in South Cambridgeshire.
There is a focus on kids, but with a comfortable intermingling of all age-groups. At each HESFES there is the "Kids Cabaret" where any child can sign up to do a performance of their own making, either on their own or in a group.
Most activities take place in marquees. The Festival offers various children's activities, which are almost exclusively designed to be educational or beneficial in some way (e.g. Circus skills
Circus skills
Circus skills are a group of pursuits that have been performed as entertainment in circus, sideshow, busking or variety/vaudeville/music hall shows. Most circus skills are still being performed today. Many are also practiced by non-performers as a hobby....
, Weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
, Football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
, fabric painting, and music workshops). Another major part of the festival is live, and recorded, musical entertainment; including a kid's disco.