Exploring the world’s first dog glamping site at NOS Alive music festival – Metro

A snuffle, a snort, and a scratch and there she is.

Thats Lua, up there, poking her head through the gate a resident at the worlds first dog glamping site at NOS Alive festivalin Lisbon, Portugal.

The hills are well and truly alive round here. A few miles down the road in the citysPasseio Martimo de Algs, theyre alive with the sound of music, a stellar line-up of big hitters like Foo Fighters, Depeche Mode, The Weeknd and The xx and providing one of Europes most vibrant and colourful destination festivals.

Up here though, its a chorus of barks and howls that flood Tiago Patels doggy daycare site.

Announced back in June, NOS Alives link-up with Tiago Patel was borne of a simple idea: why should humans be the only ones allowed a little escapism over a music festival weekend?

Dogs need this space they need to be dogs, Tiago tells metro.co.uk, gesturing to a group of pooches squabbling over a pine-cone nearby.

Its like a child, as soon as they are naughty it is seen as a problem that must be solved, but its natural they need to be a child, to get it out of their system.

The premise is foolproof. Bring your dog to the festival gates at the start of the festival, and theyre whisked off to Tiagos farm, which hosts lucky pups all year round.

While youre enjoying the music and madness of NOS Alive, the canines get to roam their very own festival site, getting back to their natural instincts in the same carefree, hedonistic ways their owners are enjoying down the road.

With eighteen dogs on-site for the festivals duration, everywhere we go were followed by a tail of at least three eager-for-a-petting pups.

Theres all ages and breeds here, from a shuffling, podgy old beagle to a grand Alsatian.

One golden dachshund is particularly amorous, flopping herself on anyone wholl give her some attention. Free love, indeed.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Luas a new arrival, only getting a day ticket for the festivals closing day.

She might have missed out on the likes of Fur Fighters, Bone-obo and Royal Bloodhound over the last few days, but the Saturday night do plays host to De-paw-che Mode and, er, Fleet Foxes (that one does the terrible punning all by itself).

Shes in her element, leaping about and legging it around the place like a novice festival sesher, trying to catch everything at once.

Tiago himself, meanwhile, is as much of a character as each of the pups in his care. Coming off like a Portuguese long-lost-relative of TVsDog WhispererCesar Millan, as he walks us through the ten-acre site, his heels swarmed by doting doggies, he enthuses about his surroundings.

Its not hard to see why from a wide open plain of grass, to a rope swing and a big old fire-pit nestled in the heart of the tiny woodland, theres more for the dogs here than there are in most humans festival campsites, and decidedly fewer pint cups and bottles of wee.

Hes a staunch believer of allowing dogs to live out their natural instincts, sitting by as they develop their own hierarchy around him.

At one point Lua gets a swift telling off from the other dogs clearly theyre not too keen on their new mate peaking too early.

Tiago and his handful of helpers camp on-site for the weekend, in a fenced off corner of the woods.

As we go to leave, one more night of Heineken-fueled hedonism ahead of us, he invites us to come bring a tent one time, and spend a full weekend with the dogs.

As lovely as our Lisbon hotel may be, a night with the pooches might just be enough to drag us back to the tinned lager and festival tents of our youth. Wed be barking mad to say no.

NOS Alive returns to Lisbon, Portugal from 12th-14th July 2018.For more information on Tiago Patel, head here.

MORE: Just so you know, theres a tropical island where you can play with puppies all day

MORE: Watch: The amazing surfing dogs at Australias Noosa Festival of Surfing

MORE: Puppy drags his new blanket outside so that a homeless dog could sleep on it

See the original post here:

Exploring the world's first dog glamping site at NOS Alive music festival - Metro