Budgies launched into space from Camp Bestival

Camp Bestival made a spectacular festival first last year by launching a pair of beautifully crotched budgies into space live at the family festival. The Bestival Foundation were proud to offer a platform for the project to raise funds for Children’s Hospice South West, and to create a wonderful space spectacle for everyone at the festival to enjoy. As the Camp Bestival main stage crowd waited for the next act to hit the stage during the afternoon, they witnessed the launch of the 'Budgies in Space' mission. Two little birds, securely attached to their spaceship, were lifted into the skies above the festival grounds by a gigantic helium balloon and during the ascent a live film, taken from the spaceship's on-board camera, was transmitted onto the festival's large screens. Bird's eye views of the Lulworth Castle grounds and the entire festival site were gradually replaced by images of the nearby Jurassic coastline and the beautiful Dorset and Hampshire countryside. As the balloon rose higher and higher into space it grew bigger and bigger until reaching a height of 127,000' it exploded. The budgies gently parachuted back to Earth and landed on the roof of a village pub called 'The Cuckoo Pint' in Stubbington. Landlord Kevin Williams said, "we get a lot of visitors dropping in for a pint but we've never had guests drop in on the roof before". Check out the stunning birds eye views in the ‘Budgies In Space’ film on YouTube here: Rob da Bank spoke of the space launch, “Strangely one of my proudest moments at Camp Bestival was watching my six year-old son Arlo cutting the cord on a huge balloon with some crocheted budgies dangling beneath it and watching it zoom off into the stratosphere to a huge cheer. The resulting photos and film have been hilarious and amazing to look at and all for a good cause too.” Andrew Price, spokesman for the Budgies In Space project says "This project is all about raising money for Children's Hospice South West and we were delighted when the Bestival Foundation supported us by commissioning a live launch during Camp Bestival. We were very worried about the proximity to the sea - the budgies aren't great swimmers - but on the day it all worked brilliantly." If you’d like to sponsor the project then head over to the Children’s Hospice South West website where you can make a donation and find out about all the fundraising events taking place.