“Imagine a place that is half adventure camp, half music festival” Camp Wildfire promises a nostalgic trip back in time to the summer camps of your childhood, combined with a staggering array of activities to sign up for, from adrenaline pumpers to gorgeous mindfulness, and a banging party under the stars every night.
This Summer we were invited to Camp Wildfire for the second time running and we were so excited to be back! Here is our full review for Camp Wildfire 2023:
The best thing about Camp Wildfire is you can have exactly the kind of weekend you want. Those wanting an action packed few days can try zorbing, raft making, capoeira and tree climbing. Fancy facing your fears? Sign up for the flying trapeze, jump on a quad bike or fling yourself off the 2-storey air drop. Feeling crafty? You’ll be spoilt for choice with everything on offer from kite making to tie dye, macrame to building bug hotels, and the ultimate festival activity: flower headdress making. And if being in the middle of a beautiful forest inspires you, why not brush off some outdoorsy skills like fire lighting, wood whittling, black smithing and shelter building! Those who just want to chill can enjoy yoga, tai chi and sitting around the communal campfire in the evenings. There’s even a spa with wood fired hot tubs that you can book! This year I was 6 months pregnant so stuck to the arts and crafts (plus some swing dancing!) while David did more of the action packed activities.
While most of the activities require booking in advance and credits to sign up (you can select varying amounts when buying your ticket and also buy extras), there are also heaps of completely free drop in sessions you can turn up to, including archery, crossbow, axe throwing, crazy golf, an EPIC giant water slide and evening astronomy sessions where you can check out planets and galaxies through telescopes. Speaking of evenings, once the sun sets and the entertainment starts, all of the talks, comedy and music performances are free as well.
There are lots of food vans available on site but if you're on a budget you are allowed to cook at your tent/van as well. We usually do a mix of both. Similarly you can bring 6 cans of alcoholic drink on site with you but no glass.
The one thing that could be improved is that it can be a bit of a scramble when it comes to booking activities. Spots across the weekend are limited and the most popular activities like quad biking, blacksmithing and metal jewellery making fill up very quickly. What we would recommend is going into the activities once they're available on the Camp Wildfire website, planning out our dream schedule and making a favourites list by marking activities with stars.
This means when it's enrollment day you can be waiting online with your list of activities in front of you ready to click enroll on each as soon as it opens. Far less chaotic.
This is the second time that David and I have been to Camp Wildfire and it’s such a special place. The people who work there and the people who attend are the friendliest, wackiest, most inclusive tribe you could ever hope to be a part of. From the minute you arrive, you join your patrol (when you enrol for your activities you have a choice of 4: Hawks, Badgers, Foxes and Squirrels - it's like selecting your Harry Potter House so choose wisely!) and believe us, while it’s absolutely all good natured fun, by the end of the weekend you will find yourself unbreakably loyal to your team. Don’t let the cuddly woodland animal names fool you – the stakes are high and you’ll be amazed at how badly you’ll want your team to win enough patrol points in the evening games to take home the trophy!
Camp Wildfire sells out quicker every year, so if this sounds like the place for you (and we guarantee that it is), you can register on the Camp Wildfire website now to be the first to hear about super early bird tickets for 2024.