From flash-mob festival bus to the UK's most theatrical cocktail bars

Our first foray into festival trading began in 2006, the same year Lewis and I (Mella) welcomed our first child. Lewis has always had a passion for vintage vehicles, and I grew up as a musician on the festival circuit. So when Lewis found a huge old bus for sale in Wales, we hatched a plan: turn it into a travelling festival theatre and café.

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That bus became The Hurly Burly, and for seven years it was our home on the road. Flash-mob performances, homemade soda bread and cakes, and our joyful theatrical travelling circus had a regular patch at Glastonbury, The Big Chill, Latitude, Shambala, Secret Garden Party and many more. In 2009 we took first place in the Glastonbury Greenpeace Soil Association Green Trader Award.

We sold The Hurly Burly in 2011.

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That same year, our first ARTBAR was born.

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The Cockatoo made her maiden voyage in the Theatre and Circus Field at Glastonbury in 2012, parked in the shade of The Hurly Burly, with our first fire performers, opera singers, ballet dancers and contortionists taking to the revolving birdcage stage above the bar. We have been sited there every year since. Our friend and festival designer Rosa Bloom named her, chose her signature cherry red, and has been dressing our staff in custom-designed sequins ever since

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Next, Lewis built Peacocktails from a vintage Morris ambulance in dazzling peacock blue, crowned with a hammered-copper installation of a resplendent peacock with shimmering tail feathers.

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The Toucan, our most ambitious build, Lewis made by welding together the fronts of two vintage ambulances into a double-fronted, push-me-pull-you creation. She is now a regular in the Glasto Latino tent, keeping the salsa dancers going with mojitos and Bloody Marys.

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Lewis builds every bar by hand. He is a master craftsman, carpenter, engineer, welder and fabricator, and the reason our bars are unlike anything else on site. I look after the theatre and the experience, drawing on a lifetime spent directing theatre and film, composing and producing. Many of our mixologists are performers too, and know exactly how to start a party.

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Today you will find us at the UK's biggest festivals including Brighton Pride, Wilderness, Creamfields, Live in Hove Park and Glastonbury, alongside corporate events, brand launches and private celebrations across the country.