Where the action was
for three days

I went to CarFest as a Scout volunteer and spent my first shift helping more than 400 caravans, motorhomes and campervans find somewhere to settle.

They were all officially described as live-in vehicles.

I’m not sure about that term. A motorhome is certainly a vehicle, and people do live in it—but “live-in vehicle” makes it sound less like a home and more like something you might need a permit to operate.

Elsewhere, people were arriving with tents. Some came only for the day. We were all attending the same festival, but apparently belonged to several different categories of temporary existence.

For a weekend, even the car park had residents.

CarFest had moved venue, and Silverstone brought one unavoidable feature: walking. Lots of it. The scale of the place only becomes clear when the thing you need is on the other side of it.

Still, it was an amazing festival. Once the main stage came alive, the distance, the tired feet and the field full of live-in vehicles all seemed entirely reasonable.

For three days, this was where the action was—and, for more than 400 vehicles, where home was too.