The early HESFES camps, 1998–2010

The earliest evidence here is a return invitation. In October 1998 Andy Blewett wrote to readers of Education Otherwise announcing a six-day festival at Monkton Wylde for the following May. His notice explained that the new gathering would return to the site of the successful 1998 camp. It gives both the place and the link between those first two years.

How the camp found its families

News travelled between home educators through local groups and printed newsletters. The October announcement was short enough to sit among notices for T-shirts, a mailing list and a conference. In December a fuller advert appeared, setting out camping facilities and offering to send readers a programme by return post.

The surviving figures belong to the next gathering. In August 1999 the organisers reported that 138 families had camped that May. Applying that figure to the first camp would give a misleading picture of its size.

Places in the organisers’ own timeline

The 2010 copy of this page records gatherings in Charmouth from 2000 through 2005. The organisers also noted a separate woodland gathering in Epping Forest in 2003. Their record moves to Mersea Island in 2006, lists two entries there for 2007 and places its tenth-anniversary event there in 2008. For both 2009 and 2010 the organisers named the Hop Farm in Kent.

That timeline is one reason to be careful when counting HESFES editions. A year could contain more than one gathering. Read the original list below for its short descriptions and follow the year archive for fuller accounts.

Remembering the beginning

A participant writing about the 2012 festival linked to this address when looking back to 1998. The same writer described what the later gathering meant to people who sometimes felt alone in their decision to educate at home. Read the 1999 record for the first detailed figures, or follow the later festival history through the different campsites.