Mountbatten hosts Queer Spirit festival at country pile
LORD Ivar Mountbatten, who upset locals this week by announcing that he plans to charge them to walk their dogs on his 100-acre country estate, has come up with a colourful new way to fill his coffers.
I hear that the TV personality, who became the first member of the extended Royal Family to have a same- sex wedding, is to host the Queer Spirit Festival at Bridwell Park in mid-Devon.
Organisers say it will be five days of ‘ community, pleasure, play, and enrichment for body, mind, and soul’.
Revellers will be able to enjoy a ‘sacred sexuality temple,’ as well as an ‘adults-only sauna’ and a range of workshops on subjects ranging from ‘sexual liberation to kink’.
Testimonials from the last Queer Spirit, in 2019 in Northamptonshire, highlight its bohemian nature. ‘I took part in naked workshops, designed to create an intimacy with strangers without the use of words,’ one reveller wrote. ‘I was able to strip off and garner the energy around me.’
Another said: ‘The sex temple was amazing and we got on extremely well. It was just pure fun all along.’
Lord Ivar, who turns 60 next week, is married to airline cabin services director James Coyle, 60. He insists: ‘It’s a family festival, so children are welcome.’ The aristocrat, who has three grown-up daughters with his ex-wife Penny, tells me of Queer Spirit: ‘They’re paying quite a lot of money, so we’re just the venue.’
Lord Ivar, a first cousin, once removed, of Prince Philip and a third cousin, once removed, of Queen Elizabeth, adds: ‘We have a deer fence that goes all the way around [the estate] and there’s no alcohol involved. I said, “Why don’t you have alcohol?” They said, “It’s spiritual and family-focused.”
‘It will be quite a laugh and my children are frightfully excited about it.’