ABR Festival 2025
ABR Festival 2025 was my first one and it was such a blast!
It was my first ABR Festival and I got a weekend ticket and trail pass and I was going solo. Thankfully I found somebody who was going and had been before via Camp VC and she gave me some tips and told me where they’d be camping if I wanted to join them. It took a couple of laps around the site to find the spot and it was much larger than I expected! It was actually a bit overwhelming at the start—in a good way. The check-in is at one end of the site, then the quiet camping, then a large area of camping with the stages and exhibition to the side of Ragley Hall. The route in took me around the long way, around the West Park, before looping back to the top of the site where we were camping—near the Bridgestone Trail.
It was only a couple of hours ride from London and I was pretty blown away by the scale of the place at Ragley Hall! I realised why people get the Super Thursday tickets now as there’s just so much to see and do! In fact for 2026 I’ve already got my Thursday ticket, with a trail pass, as I really want to make the most of the weekend and experience all it has to offer.
One of the first things I did was go to see Noraly Schoenmaker AKA Itchy Boots and it was packed! It was so great to see Noraly in person (albeit at a distance) as I’ve watched so many of her videos and really love her Itchy Boots YouTube channel.
Although I spent all weekend experiencing the festival I hardly took any photos, probably because it was much bigger than I expected and there was so much to do! So many bikes, traders, food, trails, demos, and of course the beer and music! It was really good to get a good feeling for the place this year. The weather that weekend was roasting hot too which, while great for the festival, meant I overheated a little and spent some time in the shade between visits to the exhibitors and the various stages.
The food was really good with a nice diversity of choice and the beer tents were huge! The entire weekend was also full of music but my absolute highlight of the weekend was Queen tribute band Mercury! have to admit to having a bit of a tear in my eye as they were so great and it was really the first rock band I loved as a kid.
As it was my first ABR I think I spent most of the weekend orienting myself and as I know what to expect next year I’m looking forward to it already!