Official riat camping

[nai12]

Just interested to know if anybody stayed on the official riat campsite & if it was good?

[Big Eric]

Which one is the "official" camp-site?

[aviodromefriend]

The one that is mentioned as such by RIAT, I think? From airtattoo.com:

Official Air Tattoo Campsite Provided by Bluebell Tents - NEW for 2016!
The Air Tattoo Official Campsite, provided by Bluebell Tents, is located off base, on the opposite side of the road to the Red Customer Entry Point and is open from Wednesday 6 July to Sunday 10 July inclusive. Toilets, showers, food concessions and a bar will be on site.

There are 4 camping options:

Self Pitch - bring your own tent (minimum 2 nights)
Motorhome/caravan (no electric hook up)
Pre-pitched tent (minimum 2 nights)
Boutique Camping - Bell tents with beds (glamping!) etc.

[Brevet Cable]

May seem a silly question....
Leaving RIAT on the Sunday , the route went past a campsite on the left-hand side near the George Inn -- was that the official campsite or a different one ?

[UKTopgun]

I bet the official campsite was empty due to the rip off prices

[CJS]

As has been discussed extensively on other threads - viewtopic.php?f=19&t=72544 - it wasn't a rip off at all.

But it would be interesting to see how full it got.

[Domvickery]

I stayed there from Weds - Mon.

It was situated near enough opposite the red car park between gates D & E and walked into the showground every day bar Weds, I paid £85 to self pitch.

The Royal International Air Tattoo Official Campsite will have showers, toilets and a food concession. As this is our first year, we plan to have a few surprises up our sleeves, to make your experience just that little bit more special. We will be open from 9am till 7pm from Wednesday through to Sunday.

The above what was promised, but did not live up to expectations, there was also a bar stated which was pulled last minute, surprises? None, you pitched your tent & that was it, no entertainment, the food concession was a greasy burger van & an ice cream van that did a lap or 2 each night, and no bar. Fairford village takeaways got my custom throughout my stay.

We were told that parking next to our tents was not allowed and a car park well over 200m away, subsequently this was ignored by almost everybody, I was willing to leave my valuables (camera & laptop included) that far from my tent, plus the car made an excellent windbreak on some of the nights.

There was 6 toilets (portaloos) & 5 showers to a field of at least 100 tents, 50 motor homes/caravans and the pre pitched tents, the showers looked like the only cleaning they had was a quick mop of the floor from a bucket of dirty water that was outside of them all week, the toilets were not emptied once and quickly overflowed, coming back from the show on Saturday & having a massive turd winking at me was not a pleasant experience.

The staff were friendly & helpful enough

Would I stay again? Only if I cant get onto kempsford or Totterdown

[Wrexham Mackem]

What looked good value on paper looks less so in the light of the above. A bit of a poor effort, especially compared to the exemplary Kempsford. I'd actually be interested to know who many Kempsford places come up for grabs each year, as year on year there are a huge number of familiar faces on site. It wouldn't surprise me if the year came when everyone renewed for the following year!

[romeo bravo]

Stayed there from Friday to Sunday. From my prospective the site was okay, but it all depended on what you expected; as a seasoned camper/caravaner it was what I would expect. Yes, it was empty which made life so much easier. Relaxed and quiet throughout our stay; not the noise of Kempsford, etc. Lack of formalised music and bar helped with this.

Staff were good, helpful and laid back in their approach; they quickly recognised the issues with the number of toilets and showers, saying it would be reviewed.

We had two pitches next to each other and had one caravan, two large tents and three cars on the pitches; and still gave us plenty of room to move around without encroaching on the neighbouring pitches.

Spent Friday and Sunday on the road next to the Yellow entrance, a couple of minutes walk from the campsite; walked in on Saturday. Annoyed that 'walk ins' were via Yellow entrance, a stupid long walk around the F22s, Typhoons, Reds, etc; shame we couldn't use the Red entrance.

My only gripe was the track to get off the site, a sunken ditch across the road and steep-ish rise to get on the road; might not affect everyone, but does when you are pulling a caravan.

Would I go back? Yes. And probably not pay for entrance tickets for the show. Wife was happy to sit in campsite, and watch display from there, where as I would walk down to the landing lights to photograph from there.

[Traveller]

As usual I stayed near the east end for £13/night with showers, on site catering and pub nearby. And laughed at those who still think the world ends at Kempsford.