Find alternative camping and caravan accommodation for top UK festivals

With festival season upon us once again, thousands of revellers are looking for a place to recharge their batteries during the events. Festival-goers can now rely on Pitchup.com to them find alternatives to crowded on-site camps.

Visitors to the site can simply enter a festival name into a new “Sites near festivals” tool to run a search for campsites and holiday parks within a 30-mile radius. Many have last-minute offers available. Festival-goers can then filter results using more than 80 features, such as wifi and student friendly.

The new function complements Pitchup.com’s ‘events’ section where users can search for up to 400 festivals taking place over the summer and click through to buy tickets.

Pitchup.com offers a wide selection of festivals. From the V Festival in Chelmsford, to the Secret Garden Party in Huntingdon, Pitchup.com caters for those who seek a different festival camping experience. Here is a selection of Pitchup’s favourites for 2010.

1. GuilFest 2010, Guildford, Surrey

A laid-back, family friendly festival offering a multitude of musical styles with classic and modern acts, plus entertainment, a children's area, and art and crafts. The event takes place on Friday 16 July – Sunday 18 July, with the headliners including Orbital and Status Quo as well as a number of current popular acts such as N-Dubz and Just Jack performing on the main stage.

Stay at Edgeley Holiday Park

Nestled in the rolling countryside of the Surrey Hills, close to the Stoke Park venue where GuilFest is being held, Edgeley offers guests a number of high-quality lodges for those who wish to get away from the festival atmosphere when the day is over. The park has a swimming pool and leisure facilities for guests as well as fantastic trails for walking.  It is also within easy reach of the historic town of Guildford.

2. Latitude Festival 2010, Beccles, Suffolk

Latitude festival offers a full spectrum of entertainment including film, comedy, theatre, cabaret, dance, poetry, literature and art, making it the ultimate cultural adventure by the sea. The 25,000 capacity crowd will be entertained by such acts including headliners Florence and the Machine, Belle & Sebastian, and Vampire Weekend. Other acts joining them will be The Feeling, The Temper Trap, James and Mumford & Sons. The festival is taking place from Friday 16 July to Sunday 18 July.

Stay at Waveney River Centre

Waveney River Centre is a premiere four-star holiday park and marina situated on the banks of the River Waveney. This perfect waterside retreat, occupying an idyllic south-facing location overlooking the marina and river, offers a wide range of facilities available on site and is an ideal location from which to explore the peaceful surroundings by boat, foot or car.

3. The Secret Garden Party 2010, Huntingdon.

Described by the organisers as a ‘crazy party’ where the crowds are encouraged to join in and be creative, this is a not-for-profit eccentric event offering a diverse musical mix from Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 July. Set in a 10-acre landscaped garden, bordering a river and lake, The Secret Garden is a garden-party-gone-crazy.  There are many activities for kids and adults, and music includes Gorillaz Sound System, Mercury Rev and Marina & The Diamonds.

Stay at Stroud Hill Park

Close to the festival site, Stroud Hill Park offers a three acre fishing lake and excellent walking trails and wildlife. It has an award-winning restaurant, a friendly bar and small shop which sells local produce.  Huntingdonshire also offers a landscape of ancient churches and lovely villages in rural scenery of water meadows, river valleys and riverside parks.

4. Glastonbury Festival

This year’s event, from 23 – 27 June, will mark the 40th anniversary of music and arts festivals at Worthy Farm, Somerset - where Michael Eavis first opened his gates for business in 1970 - and is now visited by around 177,000 people. As well as music from nearly every genre imaginable on over 50 stages, there are performing arts with cabaret, theatre, circus, children's entertainment, poetry, healing and green crafts. U2 are headliners on the Pyramid Stage with Muse on Saturday and Stevie Wonder on Sunday, as well as more than 350 other performers.

Stay at Camp Kerala

For a truly incredible experience, Camp Kerala is considered as the most luxurious camping facility available. Priced at more than £8,000 including tickets to the event, the staff work under the ethos that ‘nothing is too much trouble’.  The guests stay in grand shikar tents which have comfortable king size beds, sheep skin rugs and the option of en-suite toilet with shower. They provide 24-hour laundry service, taxis to and from the festival as well as ‘tent service’ which is Camp Kerala’s version of room service. The on site ‘pamper rooms’ allow guests the ultimate relaxing treatment after a long day watching their favourite bands.

5. V Festival 2010, Chelmsford

V Festival hosts some of the largest names in music, such as Kings of Leon, Kasabian and the Stereophonics, for one of the largest parties in the UK.  It takes place over the weekend of Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 August. Other acts include dance favourites such as Faithless, The Prodigy, David Guetta and Calvin Harris to name just a few.

Stay at Mill House Caravan Park

Located close to the festival site, this caravan park is a great place to escape the V festival to get a good night’s sleep. Facilities on site include a café, restaurant and a host of amenities close by including an indoor pool, shops and a bar. There are also facilities close by for campers to go fishing or horse riding for some post festival R&R.

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About Pitchup.com

The most comprehensive website in the camping and caravanning sector, Pitchup.com was launched in July 2009 and features 5,000 campsites and holiday parks in the UK and Ireland, including many in hard-to-find locations. The website enables users to search and book using more than 80 search criteria to fine-tune their holiday requirements, and features mapping technology to make getting there simple too. The site also lists accommodation near nine National Parks, hundreds of beaches, 17 World Heritage Sites and the main UK festivals and can view nearby pubs recommended by the Good Pub Guide.

Issued by Flagship Consulting

For further media information please contact:

Casey Mead     020 7886 8450 casey.mead@flagshipconsulting.co.uk

Lewis Shields   020 7886 8449 lewis.shields@flagshipconsulting.co.uk