As a blogger it's pretty impossible to imagine a
life without social media. I use many different platforms on a regular basis to
keep up with what's going on in the food world, to promote my blog and to
interact with others. When I walk around Dublin there’s always something I want
to Instagram and during the evening there is always a Facebook comment or a
tweet to reply to and sometimes it's hard to disconnect.
A few weeks ago when I received an invitation to an
“off-the-grid” weekend at the Innocent un-plugged festival I didn't even think
twice. Innocent organised their first festival ever, and it’s an event with a
difference: no wifi, no 3G and no traditional electricity. It sounded like a
challenge but I couldn't say no to a digital detox. Mr. FFID and I found
ourselves traveling with a group of journalists from Dublin airport to the
countryside of Kent in England. I absolutely love camping so I was already
pretty excited!
The festival was free to attend although tickets
were gone within minutes and the location was kept secret until closer to the
festival. It took place in the pinetum and arboretum at St. Clere Estate in
Kent. It was very exciting when our mini bus got there, arriving at a field in
the middle of nowhere.
From the campsite to the festival attendees crossed the woods filled with pretty bluebells and decorated with fairy lights. When you
got to the sign 'Last Instagram post' you knew you were entering the mobile
free zone.
The set-up was beautiful and the trees were full of
colourful flowers, which made for truly idyllic surroundings.
I have to admit,
it was a bit like torture for the first hour when I couldn't share my pictures
on social media but my withdrawal symptoms quickly went away.
The festival site
itself was quite small with one stage for music, a bar, a food vendor, an
outdoor spa, the banquet hall, a tent for inspiring talks and a campfire.
We enjoyed some prosecco in the hot tub at the
outdoor spa to start our retreat in style and then headed to the Banquet Hall
for the Meringue girls afternoon tea. The carrot cake with lime mascarpone
icing and a pipette of vodka lemon curd was out of this world and the 'unicorn
poos' (the little meringues) were just too cute. Such a quirky girly afternoon
tea!
Unfortunately I didn't have time to go to the Innocent Inspires yurt to
listen to blogger Sasha Wilkins form Liberty London Girl give a talk but after our high tea Mr.
FFID and I hurried to join a forage walk which was taking place around the
grounds of the festival.
We followed Fergus the forager, an incredibly
passionate, energetic, eccentric guy who showed us how to forage wild foods for
two and a half hours. He told us how he candied pretty much everything
including blackberry stems, how he tapped birch trees, made paper out of a
mushroom, made roasted dandelion syrup and lots of other interesting things. We
missed Mr. Motivator performing on the main stage but could hear him giving an
aerobic class in the background and we saw Morning Gloryville dancing like
crazy the next morning anyway.
During the weekend the atmosphere was very laid-back
with people socialising the real way, by talking to each other and not ‘scrolling
down’ on their phones.
There was live street art, yoga and massages, a camp
fire, lots of lovely things going on as well as plenty of space to chill and of
course Innocent drinks flowing.
The only 'stressful' moment was going to the
bathroom, as festival bathrooms aren't the best especially when you use
compost!
Did I miss the Internet? Not at all. It reminded me
of life before social media when people didn’t need to share everything
straight away with their virtual friends and had proper conversations. I took
tons of pictures but I’ve always done so, way before Facebook was invented. Usually
when you go to events organised by brands people are always stuck to their phone,
busy using a corporate hashtag but that wasn’t the case here at all. Of course
I’m not ready to ditch my social media but the whole weekend made me want to
look at my phone less often. I am
constantly trying to keep a balance between my regular use of social media and
my social interactions in real life and I was glad to see a weekend long digital
detox wasn’t too hard after all.
Disclaimer: I was invited to this festival by
Innocent drinks free of charge. I gave no undertaking to write an article
and the words above are, as always, my honest opinion.
