Vanlife Festival

As you may have seen on our socials, we have spent a full week on the West Mid Showground in Shrewsbury to help set up Vanlife Festival and display our home on wheels.

Firstly, I’d like to thank our customers who popped to see us over the weekend, it’s always so lovely to catch up with you all. 

Monday 25th May 2026

After spending a wonderful weekend with some of our van family in Norfolk, we set off bright and breezy to make our way over to Shrewsbury. Other than a pit stop for breakfast and some traffic around Birmingham, we made it to Shrewsbury shortly after lunch (not too bad for a bank holiday drive). We went straight to Tesco to stock up on supplies for the week, the jet wash to clean the lorry and Screwfix to grab a couple of fans to keep Rich cool in this hot weather. 

We arrived at West Mid Showground at 2pm to find our friends the Travelling Giants already there. We filled our water tanks and got ourselves settled in on the Field of Inspiring Dreams.

Tuesday 26th

Waking up to an almost empty field is blissful, like the calm before the storm (turns out it wasn’t just figuratively). We shared the field with just the Travelling Giants, 7 in a Bus, Team Red on Tour and Vanlife Eats. 

We took ourselves for a chilled walk to the river to keep the dogs cool as it was so so hot, where they had a good swim.

There weren’t any major jobs to do today, so we spent most of it keeping cool in the shade until Rich went to do his stint on the gate at 4pm to guide any vehicles in. Shortly after the rain came along with a storm. It was so heavy yet so relieving after the last two days of heat that I stood outside to cool down.

We stayed up to see our friends Florry the Lorry arrive, who will spend the week parked next to us.

Wednesday 27th

The first batch of arrivals to the Field of Inspiring Dreams are due to arrive today, Rich and Tony (Travelling Giants) will spend the day watching them in and parking them in their zones. 

Meanwhile, Cat (Florry the Lorry), Anna (Travelling Giants) and I tootled off to Tesco to grab some shopping, we’d forgotten a few bits when doing our shop on Monday. 

Being able to be at the festival so early is really quite chilled, lots of catching up with fellow vanlifers as well as meeting new people, the field began to slowly fill.

Thursday 28th & Friday 29th

I’m combining these two days as we spent them helping park vehicles, getting our lorry ready for show, sorting orders out and spending time with our friends. Thursday evening was spent around the fire with friends.

Friday evening, I popped up to the balcony in the staff area with Ngaire (Team Red on Tour) to see how wonderful the field was looking with Hokum & Hooch playing to the crowd, such a stunning evening. 

Saturday 30th

We were a little anxious about today, this point last year we spent the day with people viewing the truck all day and forgetting to take breaks. This year already, the vibe of the whole festival feels more relaxed. 

We didn’t get completely bombarded, it was different, the people coming to view our home were genuinely interested in our lifestyle and how we had created our home on wheels on a manageable budget. Everyone was so friendly and relaxed, we still had lots of visitors but without the pressure of last year. 

We closed up for an hour and had a look around the traders and for me to join the other Lorrylife Ladies for a group photo, before heading to the talks room. We had been asked to sit on the ‘Vanlife Unpacked Panel’ to provide answers to questions people had about genuine real life experiences living on the road. Rich and I sat on the panel with Jeremy, who has lived in vehicles for well over 30 years, Cat (Florry the Lorry), who has lived in her lorry with Chris for over 7 years and Loz, who enjoys as much time as possible in her retro VW T25.

We enjoyed our experience on the panel, we all had different answers and opinions based on our own experiences which I think will have been really helpful to the people asking the questions. 

Feeling quite wiped, we ate out at one of the food stalls and joined our friends for a chilled evening.

Sunday 31st

The final day of the Vanlife Festival. We spent the morning showing our home again, before heading to the talks room once again to listen to Chris (Florry the Lorry) give a talk about life on the road between Europe and UK. 

Having attended the Vanlife Festival for 3 years now, I can confirm that this year has been the best for us, it has felt stress free and enjoyable. We chose to spend the evening with friends around the fire, laughing and chatting, these are the moments we love when we are at the festivals.

Monday 1st June

Time for us to pack away and say our goodbyes, it always feels a little sad to leave but we are also very ready for a little downtime before it’s back to work tomorrow. 

We left West Mid Showground around 10.30am to go to Tesco to restock the fridge. We arrived in the Cannock Chase area just after lunchtime and settled for a very chilled afternoon.

Kate

xx