BareCamp Is Underway — And This Is What Naturist Community Looks Like

Sometimes the best thing we can do as a naturist community is look beyond ourselves and celebrate somebody else doing something rather good.

This week, that somebody is the team at Bare West Events.

BareCamp 2026 is now underway at Thorney Lakes near Langport in Somerset, running from Monday 7 September until Monday 14 September. For seven days, a rural campsite is being transformed into something that demonstrates rather beautifully what can happen when naturists stop thinking solely in terms of places to get naked and start thinking about communities in which people can actually belong.

And there is a lot going on.

BareCamp’s programme includes yoga, crafts, talks, music, pétanque, Zumba, archery, air-rifle shooting, fishing, a dog agility competition, live entertainment, quizzes, a silent disco, communal meals, a sauna and Sunday’s naked 5K/10K run.

There is even a Bier Keller night.

Nobody can accuse them of lacking ambition.

What interests me most, however, isn’t the length of the programme. It is what sits underneath it.

Bare West Events describes itself as a not-for-profit company formed in 2020. Its team consists of volunteers who give their time and expertise freely, no wages are paid, operating costs are deliberately kept down and any surplus is invested into future events.

That deserves recognition.

Their first week-long camping rally at Thorney Lakes took place in 2021. Five years later, BareCamp has grown to the point where camping for this year’s event is full.

That doesn’t happen accidentally.

People return to events because of how those events make them feel. Facilities matter.

Entertainment matters. Price matters. But ultimately people remember whether somebody spoke to them, whether they laughed, whether they felt comfortable and whether they left having made friends they didn’t have when they arrived.

That is something we understand very well at Naturism Wales.

Our four values are Acceptance, Kindness, Respect and Community. They are our values, but we certainly don’t pretend to have invented the ideas behind them.

When we see another naturist organisation creating genuine opportunities for people to meet, participate and belong, we should support it.

In fact, I think naturism becomes considerably stronger when we do.

There is sometimes a temptation within organisations to view everything happening outside their own boundaries as competition. I have never found that particularly convincing.

If somebody attends BareCamp and has a fantastic week, naturism wins.

If somebody nervously arrives as a day visitor and leaves having discovered that naturists are actually a remarkably ordinary collection of people who laugh, eat, exercise, make things, listen to music and occasionally subject one another to quizzes, naturism wins.

If somebody completes their first naked 5K on Sunday and spends the journey home grinning about it, naturism wins.

And if friendships formed in a field in Somerset continue long after everybody has packed away their tents and caravans, naturism most definitely wins.

There are standards behind the fun too. Bare West publishes clear expectations around naturist etiquette and behaviour, site security and photography. Their rules state that photography is permitted on an individual’s pitch only with the express permission of everyone pictured, while camera-enabled devices cannot be used for photography in communal areas. They also explicitly say that threatening or abusive behaviour and behaviour falling below expected naturist etiquette can result in somebody being required to leave.

Community and standards aren’t opposites.

Good standards help good communities flourish.

There is also still an opportunity to experience BareCamp this week without camping.

Although the main camping event is now full, Bare West is currently offering day visits at £20 per person, with multi-day options available. Sunday’s admission also includes entry to the naked 5K/10K run or walk, which begins at 10am following registration from 9.30am.

The run welcomes different abilities and walkers as well as runners, so nobody needs to suddenly discover their inner Mo Farah.

Naturism Wales is based in Wales, and proudly so. But community doesn’t stop at the border.

So this morning I simply want to say congratulations to the volunteers at Bare West Events who are currently somewhere in Somerset making all of this happen.

While everybody else enjoys the sauna, entertainment, food, music and company, there will inevitably be people quietly solving problems, answering questions, moving equipment and doing the hundred invisible jobs required to make a large community event work.

Those are often the people who make naturism possible.

Have a brilliant BareCamp 2026.

And from all of us at Naturism Wales: thank you for giving naturists another place to belong.

Have you been to BareCamp before — and if you have, what is the one thing you’d tell somebody thinking about visiting for the first time?

Further reading

Bare West Events — BareCamp 2026

Full information about this week’s event, programme and current availability.

Bare West Events — Day Visitors

Current day-visitor information and booking options, including Sunday’s naked 5K/10K.

Bare West Events — Naked 5K/10K

Information for runners and walkers taking part on Sunday 13 September.

Bare West Events — About Bare West

More about the volunteer team and the development of its events since 2020.