When George Smith invited us to attend a summer party at House Festival I could hardly wipe the grin off my face. My favourite time of year is festival season; I never made it to Glastonbury this year so was grateful to mourn my losses at House Festival. Dubbed ‘the poshest festival in the world’ and organised by Soho House we couldn’t wait to arrive.

Luckily the Gods were in our favour and the temperature was also the hottest day of the year so far. Spoilt much?!

We made our way to Marble Hill House an English Heritage sight, set in 66 acres of riverside in Richmond. The beautiful Palladian villa was built for Henrietta Howard a mistress of King George II when he was the Prince of Wales. Marble Hill House has grand interiors that have been intricately restored, the house also includes an exceptional collection of Georgian paintings.

We arrived at the festival grounds and were escorted through to the George Smith tent. As we entered the acres, we passed an array of hanging multi-coloured ribbons and giant balloons from Bonbon Balloons that were plastered across the house exterior.

The tent was beautifully decorated with traditional rugs spread across the lawn, hanging lanterns, greenery, Moroccan leather poufs and of course some fabulous upholstered outdoor seating.

We were informed that all the food and drinks at the festival we’re included with our ticket – yes free! We were ecstatic and I was convinced I was actually in heaven.

Grey Goose was sponsoring the event and there were a few cheeky cocktails to choose from, luckily we had all day to test each one.

We decided it would best to have some food before indulging in the entire cocktail menu. Our next stop happened to be picking fresh oysters with a splash of Tabasco for that extra kick.

Treated ourselves to a glass of champagne and headed in search of lobster.

One of the main goals of the day was to eat as much lobster as possible.

There were huge buffet style serving stations with incredible displays of fresh food. We couldn’t resist and dabbled in almost everything. There were mountains of lobsters, fresh prawns, chorizo, lamb, beef, sweet potato, crusty bread, and endless salad choices.

I bet you’re feeling hungry now. Sorry.

We camped on a haystack in the sunshine with a cocktail each, feasting on lobster and listening to Jake Bugg play some of my favourite songs from his first album. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday hey!

Next up we fell into the fairground admired people screaming on rides around us and decided to cause some of our own mayhem.

We queued for the dodgems and before people had even got out of the karts the crowd of adults stampeded on. Ana and I put our game faces on and successfully drove like nutters into as many people as possible.

 

We then stumbled across hula hoop dancers, performing in front of the stunning Marble Hill House exterior.

I just couldn’t help but join in, with a little nudge from Ana.

I decided to test my hula hoop skills and can confirm I am still useless.

I cooled off my toes in the paddling pool and rewarded my hula hoop efforts.

With our next cocktail in hand, we watched the crowd go wild to De La Soul, waving their hands in the air like they just don’t care.

Kelis did her thang, rocking an awesome orange dress.

We copied her dance moves, to see if the milkshake could bring the boys to the yard.

Damn right it’s better than yours, I can teach you, but I have to charge.. We might have got rather carried away.

We went to see Jungle in one of the tented stages that had an amazing set and were a definite highlight of the evening.

After all that booty shaking (as my sister would say) we decided to rest.

Feeling tired after our lively antics we helped ourselves to more cocktails and checked out Pizza East’s stand.

We enjoyed a slice of pizza a couple of balls AND tucked into pulled pork baps. The temptation of mouth-watering food was too good to refuse.

Have you ever seen so many balls? *Wink wink

We then had a break from our eating spree, before getting stuck into a female heavy crowd at Paloma Faith.

As the night drew in we shimmered over to the front of the stage to watch Dizzy Rascal.

Once the crowd got seriously bonkers we headed back for a higher view and a glass of champs.

We both agreed that we were due another round on the dodgems.

Each having our own kart we strapped in and got ready to drive like maniacs.

As night-time arrived the festival sadly ended, we admired the house in all of its beauty for one last time and headed off in search of an after party.

If you fancy checking out the festival have a peek here House Festival.

Honestly the BEST day of 2014, thanks George Smith for letting us get truly spoilt. I’m already hyped for next year!