How to choose the right festival for your family

and is a festival the right place for you?

There’s no denying that taking children to a music festival can be very hard work, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea – but for those uber cool, let’s have it, this is how we roll type of parent (that’s you) you might take the plunge and hopefully find the rewards are well worth the effort.  Accept that you won’t see everything you would see if you didn’t have children with you, get in the festival spirit of what will be will be, and let the adventures begin…

Bollywood Dance Workshop

A festival is full of things to watch, learn, and do and if you’ve been an avid festival-goer before kids, you are now sure to see things you completely missed while you spent past years waving your arms in the dance tent!  Taking your children to a good festival offers them such a rich opportunity to broaden their horizons and open their eyes to creativity and culture that they would be hard-pressed to experience in normal life.  Festival-going is so educational that we believe it should be part of the National Curriculum, but maybe that’s taking it a bit far! 😉

So how do you begin to choose a festival to go to?  Well, a good place to start would be recommendations from your friends or from the Festival Kidz Facebook followers.  Going with a group of friends can be a real bonus as you can usually share childcare, meaning some of you may actually get to catch that band you’ve been wanting to see since before the kids were born!

Another good starting place would be our Family-Friendly Festivals Map so you can find one within a manageable travelling distance, which is better for the environment and means you don’t have to factor in a 5-hour journey before you’ve even get to the festival car park queues.

But what else should you consider when choosing a festival to take your kids to?

SIZE – When it comes to festivals, big is not always best.  The capacity of a festival is not a measure of how crowded the festival might feel because this depends more on the number of stages and different areas and the overall size of the site, capacity does, however, give a reasonable indication of the size of the festival (and of how long it might take you to get from one place to another. Carrying tired children 20 minutes up a hill when they’ve fallen asleep is no fun for anyone.

In general smaller festivals are a good option for first-time families. Even if there isn’t a great deal of children’s entertainment on offer purely because it feels small, safe and usually less crowded. Often these are in one field so it’s easier to keep an eye on your children if they are having a bit of free-range time.  You will be able to get closer to the bands at a small festival too meaning kids can begin to appreciate the joys of live performance.

We believe it’s important to support local grass-roots events too – you get a great community spirit, it’s arguably greener, and it supports the local economy and local talent.  It’s usually heaps cheaper if the bands are less known, and if things are not going well then it’s not a huge problem to just go home without feeling you’ve wasted hundreds of pounds on tickets. Start small and local and you won’t go wrong with little ones.

However, if you want a superb range of workshops and a big-name line-up you are probably going to have to splash out on a larger festival with a larger budget.

TICKET PRICE – Prices can range from free to £250+ for adults so there are festivals to suit all budgets. Look out for events that offer free kids tickets as this can make a huge difference to the amount you need to spend. Although free tickets can mean less aimed specifically at kids, or higher expenses for extra activities once you are at the event.

Charity events can offer better value for money because the profits are not going to large corporates, but other festivals can be better organised with more choice in terms of entertainment and facilities because of their greater purchasing power.

CAMPING – Make sure the options you need are available.  Not all festivals allow caravans.  Some have fabulous glamping options and pre-erected tents.  Some festivals don’t have any camping at all.  You may also want to consider the distances between the car park / campsite / main stages / toilets / arena entrance.  Some festivals offer trolley or wheelbarrow hire to help with carting your stuff to the campsite.  And each festival has different rules about fires, barbeques and even cooking near your tent. Some festivals even offer the option to camp by your car for an extra fee. Well worth it for those that can’t pack light or are first timers.

TERRAIN – It’s not the first thing you think of but the terrain of the festival site could make a big impact on your energy levels.  If you have been walking huge distances, pushing buggies uphill, or battling through 10 inches of mud all day then you will all feel more tired.  Festival sites with hardstanding and concrete paths are great for buggy and trolley users – but far less attractive.  Hills are less comfortable to camp on because you roll downhill when you sleep.  Natural shade from trees is a blessing in hot weather and sudden downpours.  Even the soil type and contours of the earth are worth considering if there’s a risk of heavy rain and a resulting mud bath or flooding.

And if you need to just sit on a picnic blanket for a few hours, who wouldn’t find it more relaxing in a beautiful picturesque site? Our biggest advice here is to consider how carting kids around a festival might make or break your weekend at a large event.

LINE UP, WORKSHOPS, ENTERTAINMENT – You may be particularly keen on a certain headliner but let’s face it, when you have kids, you may find yourself foregoing that performance if the kids need the toilet / feel hungry / want to be elsewhere / just are not playing game.  So choosing a festival based solely on one band is never a good idea.  Make sure that there is a good range of stuff going on at various times all day so that there is enough to keep the whole family reasonably happy for the majority of the time.  Family festivals are all about compromise.

Check out the variety of workshops, whether there are talks, storytelling, dancing, discos, theatre, arts… and all the other things you and your family members will enjoy…

COVERED AREAS – We all want our festivals to be dry and sunny, but if it’s not and there is no shelter from the elements you may find your family becoming rapidly downbeat.  If it’s really hot you may need some shade.  Check that there is stuff to do indoors if you need it.  And of course make sure you have sunhats, sunscreen, wellies, SnoozeShade and waterproofs.  Check out our other post about wet weather at festivals and the Family Festival Survival Guide.

FACILITIES – You may want to find out what the toilet and shower arrangements are.  Some festivals have ‘proper’ flushing loos (especially those on racecourses or at year round venues) or compost loos, but most will have portable plastic toilet units.  With the best will in the world, after several hundred people have used a chemical toilet unit, it will be smelly, dirty, and out of paper.  If you have to accompany a young child, you will find them incredibly cramped, awkward and possibly disgusting.  Some festivals have dedicated child toilets which are usually cleaner, roomier and with less queues.).  But if not, and toilets are a concern for you, then something like a Bog In A Bag is a useful emergency solution!  Poonarnia are a pretty cool toilet facility to look out for too!

If a shower each day is important to you, check the festival you pick has showers (not all do) but also find out if you have to pay (so you can take the right change) and whether there are usually 3-mile queues to use them. Afternoons are always less busy than mornings.

BABIES – For some with young babies you may want to find out if there is a baby tent with baby bathtime (e.g. Just So, Glastonbury), spare nappies and quiet breastfeeding and changing areas.

FOOD – Most festivals have a good range of catering units on site, but at smaller festivals, your choice may be quite limited if your children are very fussy.  It is much cheaper to self-cater, but this inevitably entails packing and carrying a LOT more gear… we have a blog about festival food if you want some camping meal ideas.

CURFEW – We don’t mean to be a killjoy here, but if you’re the type of person who cannot sleep with background noise then you would do well to choose a festival that has a curfew on amplified music after midnight.  Ear plugs help, but if you don’t get on with them then noise levels at night may make the difference between a chilled happy weekend and an irritable sleep-deprived grumpzilla in your midst!

LOST CHILDREN – Any festival that welcomes families should have a procedure in place for reuniting lost children with their parents as quickly as possible with the minimum distress to the child (you of course are likely to be completely panicked – but festivals are actually one of the safest places for kids to go walkabout so do stay calm.  Locate the lost children points early on and familiarise yourself and your kids, if they are old enough, with the procedures.  Read our other tips for keeping your children safe at a festival (spotting landmarks/rendezvous points, mobile phone numbers, etc).

For little explorers you might like to consider investing in a Child Locator device (airtag), or giving kids an old smart phone you can track.

Please note:

Not all festivals are good for children.  One parent writes about taking her toddler and young baby to Reading Festival… never again!  Fine in the day but when the sun went down the teenage crowd turned decidedly hostile towards festival-goers with young kiddies cramping their style…  It was a scary experience for her and a good lesson:  Some festivals are better saved for a different sort of crowd.


5 thoughts on “How to choose the right festival for your family

  1. hi there
    i took my 5 year old daughter to the wickerman this year with friends and their kids altho they were a year or 2 older than her my daughter had a ball she enjoyed the whole thing! were were also camped up in the main camping at the front near the arena entrance and she loved it i will definetky be taking her too festivals unfortunately we cant go to the wickerman next year but looking into other festivals. there was soo much for the kids to do me and my daughter were in the rave tent(her idea to check it out) loved it she loved the atmosphere of the whole weekend i cant say anytging bad about it at all i would recomend it to everyone i know!

    claire

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