As the Summer draws to a close, we are pleased to share an interview with the Co-Founder of Hooe’s Yurts, Amy Worthington Dugmore, who has spent this festival and events season on the road.
Amy shares why she finds it such an honor to work in her field of work, creating beautiful spaces and styled yurts to a huge range of events, and why she loves Falcon’s pillarbox red tumblers so much.
Can you tell us a bit about you and your journey to creating beautiful spaces, and providing yurts for such a diverse range of events?
In my old life as a chef I had a plan to run a pop up noodle soup restaurant from a yurt. I loved yurts, their simplicity and beauty and I traveled to south east asia for research and to collect textiles for the yurt interiors. Life took a different turn and the restaurant didn't go ahead but I had this wonderful yurt filled with beautiful textiles and people wanted to hire it from me. Bingo a business appeared from the heavens. It was so successful that I ordered more yurts and traveled the globe sourcing more textiles. At this time I met the love of my life, Max, who happened to be very practical and from an events background. It was a match made in heaven. 18yrs later we have a thriving business that still fills us with a lot of joy. We travel the world together collecting the interiors and we spend the summers at amazing festivals and events building the yurts for lots of fantastic people. Always with our children in tow who never leave our side.
You are currently in the midst of festival season- what does this Summer hold for you?
We have just finished a huge build at Glastonbury festival with 5 different areas across the site, my personal favorite being Pennard Orchard, a truly magical place to stay while attending the festival. The rest of the summer is a delicious mix of private parties, weddings and festivals. The festivals I'm most looking forward to are Wilderness Festival in the Cotswolds, Camp Bestival in Dorset (for the kids) and Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire.
What do you love most about the wedding and festival season?
We spend a lot of time preparing and mending our equipment which has its own beauty and rhythm but I always love it when we are truly deep in the madness and things are all go. Adrenaline, problem solving, caring for crew and of course seeing clients faces filled with joy and excitement as they enter their yurt. It is an honor to be part of humans bringing together other humans together to gather and celebrate in a beautiful space. There is nothing better.
You often spend time off grid with your family, what are your top tips?
We spend a lot of time adventuring in nature, specifically on Dartmoor. That is where I'm most happy and when we can really connect deeply as a family. These are some of my top tips:
1) OS map app. You pay £28.99 per year and then have access to all OS maps on any device. You can plan routes which means you know how long a trip will take. Game changer
2) Grayl water purifier - £69.99. You can dip into any water source and press down on the filter to give you drinkable purified water. No more carrying liters and liters of water.
3) I always take the kit to make hot drinks, tea for us and hot chocolate with all the trimmings for the kids. It creates a sense of occasion and is a treat. My kids love this part of our walks. Always Falcon enamel wear for the cups to keep standards up!
4) Kids won't just walk for hours on end, you need to engage and put the effort in to make it fun. Take other people's kids to entertain yours. Play nature games like turning over dead logs to see what bugs you can find. Ask them to find something in nature that is Green/Red/Brown/White/Blue and bring it back to show you.
You enjoy using Falcon within your yurts, what's your favourite product and why?
I love the tumblers as they are the perfect size for adventures plus despite not having handles you can still serve hot drinks in them. 100% my fav colour is pillarbox red. Love it.
Are there any local companies you'd like to shoutabout? Where do you usually eat, drink, and source ingredients in your local area?
Oh crumbs I love my part of Devon and there are sooooo many people I want to shout out.
Sheepskin interiors (i have these in my yurts) - The Dartmoor Shepherd in Chagford
New restaurant soon opening - Emilia in Ashburton
Farm to table restaurant - Coombeshead Farm in Lewanick
Hotel - Glebe House, east devon
Butcher - Warrens, Launceston
Bread - Quernstone Bakery
Leather worker - Warriner Leather Works
Hotel with gardens - Endsleigh Hotel, Milton Abbot
Natural bath and body products - Land and Water
Pillarbox Red Teapot
£30.00
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