Stainsby Festival

Take a look at our travel info. page

Yes, there are always shows, story sessions, craft making and other workshops for young people at Stainsby. The choice is usually laid out on chalk boards day by day at our information tent. Please bear in mind that our entertainers and workshop folk are not in loco parentis: it’s not child-minding , so please keep an eye as appropriate. Take a look at our travel info. page

Camping is free for weekend ticket holders on Friday and Saturday nights.

There are toilets and a fresh water supply to all parts of the site. Cars are not allowed onto the camping area owing to limited space but there are plenty of wheelbarrows for you to borrow to hump stuff up and down the site. Please bring our wheelborrows back afterwards.

For those unable to use the wheelbarrows, we try to run a land rover service when we have time, for those wanting assistance to and from the car park.

Take a look at our accessibility page for more info.

Although you can stay over on Sunday night after the festival closes, we’d rather you didn’t, pretty please. It makes our take down easier and faster if you don’t and we need to get our volunteers back to the day job as soon as we can. With the festival officlally colsed at 10.00pm Sunday, overnight facilities are very limited (because we’ll be dismantling them!) and you MUST be off site by 10am on Monday morning.

There are local hotels, B&Bs and self catering within easy reach like Twin Oaks Hotel at J29, or The Shoulder at Hardstoft and Local Airbnbs The choice is yours!

For a map, take a look at our travel info. page

There are no facilities in Stainsby village itself. The nearest shops (and anything else really) are around two miles away in Holmewood. So bring your own supplies or visit our various catering establishments.

Take a look at our travel info. page to see a map.

You can buy individual session tickets for Friday evening,Saturday afternoon or evening, or a 1 day Sunday all day ticket. The changeover time from afternoon to evening sessions in 5.00pm.

Yes you can. See the information on our ticketing page

Camp fires are not allowed because they ruin the pasture and are a danger to the crops groing nearby. Small BBQs are fine provided they’re up off the ground and you have water handy.

Camping space is very limited at Stainsby and everyone has to be very nice to each other since you can’t turn round without sticking your bum through someone else’s guy ropes. So please – NO GAZEBOS – there’s shed loads of space to stretch out in the festival arena. Leave the camping area free for tents, ‘cos we need all the space we can get. And we’re not in the business of being the Gazebo Police, we want to enjoy ourselves too. So just don’t bring ’em, eh? Thanks.

Unfortunately our site is very small and crowded and we don’t have room for caravans. Sorry! But see Teversal Camping and Caravanning for a superb caravan site next to Silverhill Country Park. Full facilities and lots of capacity. Distance to festival 3 miles. Or how about Poolsbrook Caravan Park, sited in the stunning redeveloped Poolsbrook Country Park: lakes, walks, latest facilities, and also lots of capacity only one junction up the motorway at J29A. Distance to Festival 7 miles

Because we can’t take caravans we’ve been asked a lot about campervans and motorhomes. When it’s someone’s main means of transport, it gets a bit tricky and we obviously don’t want anyone to miss out on the festival, so we don’t encourage people to use them but we do allow them in the car park. (But ONLY under 7 metres). If you do bring one remember that there aren’t any facilities in the car park and you MUSN’T put tents up next to them or you could get us closed down by Environmental Health (Tents + moving cars + cow shit = extremely naughty + no licence). So if you absolutely have to bring your motorhome under 7 metres – in the car park please – but remember tents there are a no-no.

We do – but only to cover the costs of providing the parking space. There is a large car park next to the site. You can buy a car park ticket online when you buy the rest of your tickets.

The proceeds from the tickets are put towards the costs of providing trackway in case of wet weather and also allow us to run the FREE Stainsby Flyer festival bus to and from Chesterfield for every session so you’re helping us get greener!

Yes. There are several catering concessions serving a variety of hot food throughout the day and evening. In the past this has featured everything from burgers to empanadas and jacket potatoes to wood fired pizzas. We always provide vegetarian and vegan options. And for the caffeine addicts there is a mobile espresso bar.