EVENT | THE NATIONAL AIRSOFT FESTIVAL!

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the blog!

It's been a crazy few weeks, travelling the UK with Unicorn Leah and Jet Desertfox, and visiting Poland for the Gunfire 2020 calendar shoot but I'm all settled in California for 6 whole weeks and I'm catching up on all the content! Today I have an event write-up for you from the biggest airsoft event in the UK - the National Airsoft Festival ran by Zero One Airsoft.

Once a year, I and my Airsoft team Project Cerberus make the drive to Ringwood in Hampshire for Zero One Airsoft’s annual event - the National Airsoft Festival! The National Airsoft Festival is, without a doubt the biggest airsoft weekender in the UK. On the bank holiday weekend in August up to 3,000 airsofters descend on Ground Zero – Zero One's skirmish site located in a small market town in the south-west to enjoy a huge festival dedicated to EVERYTHING airsoft, and this year I had two special guests with me - Unicorn Leah and Jet Desertfox, all the way over from the USA! I have harped on and on about this festival for the last 3 years so it was awesome to finally be able to show J&L exactly what I love about the NAF. As my small pink 208 was a little too small for all the kit/camping gear for three people, our smoke grenade baes at Enola Gaye organised a hire car for us - so for the weekend I had a Peugeot 2008 SUV (big enough to fit everything in!) We arrived at about 10am on Friday morning and luckily enough there was no bank holiday traffic, by the time we arrived, the festival was already in full swing! 

As I drove down the long road laden with banners for the NAF into the normal camping zone to meet up with my teammates, I was already feeling the festival buzz and so were they! As soon as I pulled up, the tent was out and everyone helped erect ‘the palace’ - if any of you know me, you know I dislike camping and almost everything about it except the BBQs and campfires! As we were setting up our tent, more and more of the team arrived until camp Cerberus was set-up. Shortly after the camp was set-up we made our way down to the festival to sign in. Most of my team to choose to just camp (which is usually my jam too but this year I decided to play) so they were signed in super quick. The players in our team, on the other hand, had to wait around half an hour to be signed in as we were on the ‘Others’. The sign-in process this year didn’t seem very smooth - and I think it could be improved by not having the lines for the 3 teams and working on a ‘bar-like’ system as when there’s no one in the queue for Bravo and Delta the ladies signing those teams in were waiting around whilst the member of staff signing in the Others were rushed off their feet - I think what would work better is if there were just 3 lines with the numbered envelopes at the back of the tent so each member of staff could grab any player number. Tickets for the NAF are £90 if you wish to play or £30 for the weekend if you simply want to camp and enjoy the festivities and shop your heart away.

The festival village this year differed slightly from the previous years. The festival area is a huge space amongst the trees of the Ground Zero forest that is conveniently situated between the gaming zone and camping zones that holds the Zero One shop tent and bar tent, the retailers/manufacturers stands, the food vendors, the range, the G&G CQB course and player sign in. It is the hub of activity over the weekend! The main difference at 2019’s NAF is that Zero One chose not to bring the entire showroom of stock to the event, instead players could order online and get the goods brought to site the same day. They did have a consumables shop on site though selling BBs, gas and other game day essentials. They also had an onsite tech tent for break downs that occurred onsite to keep players in the game. There was a great selection of food trucks at the event this year including a burger van, curry, Greek gyros, pizza, ice cream etc so there really was a choice for everyone!

The gates to Ground Zero open at 7 am on Friday for festival-goers and I recommend getting there as early as you can – this way you can get your pick of where you camp and get through the sign-in and Chrono queues as quickly as possible. The festival isn’t just for airsofters though, it is family-friendly (although dogs weren’t permitted at this year's event) and there are camping areas to suit all - from loud camping for those who want to party until the early hours, normal camping for those who are just happy in the middle ground and quiet camping for those who want an earlyish night - although I will say the number of generators in quiet camping running until the early hours is growing year on year so if you do want an early night and your camp neighbour has a generator, it may be worth having a word with them prior to the evening.

On Friday, my team spent the day BBQ’ing, having a few beverages and catching up with each other (as some of us haven’t seen each other for a year - since the last NAF) and getting acquainted with Jet and Leah. We visited the festival area and caught up with friends from the trade stands which included Enola Gaye, Viper Tactical, GBLS UK, WARQ, Tactical Coffee Company, Airsoft Action and a fair few others. I LOVE the buzz of the festival area. There is a game on the Friday for those with itchy trigger fingers. Saturday is when the main game kicks off however as I wanted to enjoy the social side of the NAF more, I stayed at our camp/in the festival area whilst. Jet, Leah and my teammate Sim went out to play - lookout for my NAF vlog to see what happened at camp! aturday us also the day we have our annual Women of Airsoft meet-up, women from our Facebook group - Women of Airsoft that are from all over the world meet-up in the bar after the raffle. We have some beverages and chat about all things airsoft. I am always excited to see these lassies because it’s such a good time!

Sunday is the day I played, and it was also the hottest day of the NAF! As temps reached 32 degrees I kitted up ready to play the biggest game in the UK. For my loadout, I chose my lumber-tac shirt and new Viper Gen 2 Elite Trousers in M81 and ran my One Tigris VULTURE Chest Rig. Although it was really hot in the camp/festival zones, the game zone itself is really cool as it is under heavy tree cover. This site honestly reminds me of Endor in the Star Wars films and I was half expecting little Ewoks to jump out of the bushes. I played for around 3 hours in total before it became too hot to continue for me (I am really affected by hot weather). I got team killed a lot and this resulted in a 10-minute walk to respawn, spending 10 minutes in respawn and then a10 minute walk back to where I had left my teammates. I think a way the gameplay could be improved is definitely by introducing a medic rule so players don’t need to walk back to respawn as often.

Overall, this was probably the best year I’ve had at the National Airsoft Festival to date! I got to see some of my best friends and hang out in glorious weather, BBQ, crack open a cold one and also play some airsoft! I would love to see the queuing system improved, the return of the Zero One shop and a medic rule for the gameplay but apart from those three things, I think the team at Zero One run a fantastic event not just for airsofters, but for families as well. I just want to say a huge thank you to Zero One for having us. See you next year!

Check out my NAF vlog here:

What happens at the National Airsoft Festival, stays at the NAF?

The UK is REDNECK AF (National Airsoft Festival)