IT WAS the perfect test – could I, a tentophobe in every sense of the word, manage to not only put up Coleman’s new six-man Inflatable FastPitch Air Valdes tent alone, but also take it to a festival and live in it for a few days?

The fact that the new Coleman tent range can be pumped up obviously appealed, none of that scrabbling about on the floor, peering at diagrams, and failing utterly to transform a tight tube of canvas into a portable house without pulling out all your hair and being admitted to the nearest asylum. Instead something spacious, with a door, which goes up in minutes. I was in.

The Big Feastival in Kingham proved the perfect opportunity, although the whole rigmarole of parking miles from the camping section, having to hire a trolley and then lug said tent, a fairly bulky cube, on to the right field to pitch it, was an ordeal in itself.

Once we had nabbed the perfect spot however, and having watched the Coleman video the night before on YouTube, where a very capable man made it all look very easy, I tried to recall his technique. Roughly peg it out, start pumping up the tent ribs from the back, (I’m sure there is a technical name for them but you know what I mean).

The valves are situated one side at regular intervals, and while they can be fiddly to engage, and energetic to perform, the results are miraculous.

It even has rooms inside – all very civilised. Fellow campers looked around in envy as our tent was quickly erected, pinned down properly and our luggage chucked in, all within half an hour, enabling us to reach the festival before anyone else.

And when the rains came down, complete with thunder and lightning, all but closing the festival, our tent proved utterly waterproof and the perfect retreat. Listening to the screeches and squeals of our fellow campers as the water seeped in and puddles pooled on their tent floors, we felt rather smug that we remained dry, comfortable and even managed a quick kip during the downpour.

A massive thumbs-up from me. Coleman might have achieved the impossible by managing to convert the unconvertible

But give me the new Coleman Inflatable FastPitch Air Valdes tent any time, which comes in two-man, four-man, six-man, 6L man and 6XL man. www.coleman.eu.