WOMAD
WOMAD 2016 Review
By Tim Kaye, Caroline Gilbert and Hazel (6) and Gwilym (4)
Organisers the length and breadth of the country dread the rain when they have put on an outdoor event. It’s easy to miss the essential spark of a particular festival when you are soaked to the bone and the kids are moaning.
This is what it was like last year but we came back undaunted. Keen to sample the WOMAD atmosphere to its full effect. Read more…
WOMAD 2015 Review
With Hazel Kaye (5), Gwilym Kaye (3), Caroline Gilbert and Tim Kaye.
Let me just say at the outset that it rained at Womad, not just heavily but torrentially then stopped then rained again.
Now I am not one to whimper at the first sign of a bit of water from above but this review is tempered by the fact that this brilliant festival endured a WOMUD year.
Having said that, it is obvious the event provides so much to enlighten, entertain and enhance both young and old minds.
We’ve wanted to go to the festival of world music for so long we can safely say that it did not disappoint. It has a feel of a small, intimate and exciting festival and yet it’s the biggest stage for acts from around the world.
Read more…Best Family Festivals 2015
Tweet #BestFamilyFestivals2015
Here are our top picks for 2015!
Whether a festival is good for you depends on what music you’re into and what other things you like doing at festivals, as well as the age of your kids. If you are new to festivals with kids, you may want to read our guide to Choosing the right Family-Friendly Festival.
We have included our affiliate links in the listings – if you click “Buy Tickets Now” you will go straight to the ticket page for your chosen festival. You will not pay anything for this but the festival will give us a small commission to keep Festival Kidz up and running – so please use them!
Best Family Festivals 2014
Here are our top picks for 2014!
Now is a great time to start thinking about buying your festival tickets – most of the festivals offer ‘early bird’ prices, which means they are reduced if you book them early.
Whether a festival is good for you depends on what music you’re into and what other things you like doing at festivals, as well as the age of your kids. If you are new to festivals with kids, you may want to read our guide to Choosing the right Family-Friendly Festival. Read more…
WOMAD 2013 Review
In the words of my 5 year old: “I wish it could be WOMAD everyday”
Confession time, we were WOMAD virgins but this only added to the excitement of setting off on our five and a half hour journey to Charlton Park and our very first WOMAD experience.
Just as we were packed up and ready to leave home at 6.20 am the rain came. Nothing to worry about as we had managed to get everything in our trusted Dolly (our camper van) and at least we were dry.
Ten minutes into our journey and we were starting to worry a little as the heavens opened and just being able to see the road ahead of us was a struggle. Thoughts of “NO please don’t let this be how our first WOMAD is going to be” entered our heads but there was no use in worrying, what will be will be!
Festival Kidz Team: Our Picks 2013
Every year we face the same dilemmas – Do we go to our favourites, the ones we know and love, where the kids feel at home?
Or do we try out some new ones, potentially discover something amazing, and widen our knowledge of great festivals to recommend to all you lovely families out there?
We’re very lucky in that we get invited to far more than we can manage to attend… but the reality is that with kids (or even without kids) it’s just too tiring (and expensive!) so we’ve had to learn to pick and choose.
Here are the festivals we’ve picked this year and why Read more…
WOMAD 2012 Parent Review
Taking 4 kids to WOMAD? Not a problem…!
Parent Review by the Dersons Family
My husband and I, and our 4 children, enjoyed a wonderful weekend of mind-blowing sounds, amazing sights and delightful tastes at WOMAD, Charlton Park.
Having packed everything required for the wide variety of weather that could come our way we arrived at WOMAD in the scorching heat and quickly had to find sunhats and sun cream. We hired a cart to take our huge amounts of stuff from our van to the our camping spot and before long we were set up and the children were cooling their feet in buckets full of cold water!
We had paid extra for Thursday tickets and arrived at 11am, the campsite was already busy and buzzing with anticipation.
Being there early gave us and the children an opportunity to get to know the site and to take in the sights, sounds and smells. The children’s area was not yet open so could spend our time exploring. A lovely evening was finished off with an energetic dance to the Soul Rebels.
WOMAD 2012 Review
After several festivals in awful weather this year… mud, gales, rain, more mud… I wasn’t sure I could face another one. But at the last minute I had been offered a ticket to WOMAD and as it’s been on my wishlist for a few years, and I wasn’t committed to anything else, it felt too good an opportunity to miss.
My husband couldn’t get time off work, so I took the girls on my own – they’re a bit older now at 9 and 7 and very comfortable in a festival environment so I figured we’d be OK. I wouldn’t baulk at taking them to a smaller festival on my own, but I did think twice about WOMAD because 20,000 people is a sizeable crowd. But I needn’t have worried – turns out the WOMAD crowd are the most chilled, friendly and relaxed bunch of people I have ever shared a festival with! Even the security staff had time for a friendly chat and smile as you went through. Read more…
Top 15 Music Festivals for Under-5’s – 2012
Top Festivals for Babies and Toddlers 2012 (for 2013 – click HERE!)
For really young kids we tend to recommend smaller festivals, particularly if you are not an experienced festival-goer. Smaller festivals have the dual advantage of not being so vast that a trip back to the tent for a forgotten dummy takes half the morning, and the stage areas are usually less crowded meaning you can get closer to the bands without fearing your little one getting accidentally trampled on or lost. That said, smaller festivals often don’t have as much budget for children’s activities, so your choice will also depend a little on the level of laid-on entertainment that your family need.
It really is very hard to choose from all the festivals that take place in the UK each year. But if we have to narrow it down, our short-list of the best festivals to take your really little ones to goes a little like this:
Our pick of the Festivals 2012
Choosing from the hundreds of excellent family-friendly festivals out there is really really tough.
Many families will place a different importance to different aspects. Personally I don’t like my festivals too crowded, I like quality music but I’m not so bothered by big names, and most importantly I like a good range of workshops and street theatre to keep everyone entertained. But people always ask me which are the best festivals for kids so here is my shortlist – the ones which I think have something extra-special about them: Read more…
WOMAD 2016 Review
By Tim Kaye, Caroline Gilbert and Hazel (6) and Gwilym (4)
Organisers the length and breadth of the country dread the rain when they have put on an outdoor event. It’s easy to miss the essential spark of a particular festival when you are soaked to the bone and the kids are moaning.
This is what it was like last year but we came back undaunted. Keen to sample the WOMAD atmosphere to its full effect. Read more…
Best Family Festivals 2015
Tweet #BestFamilyFestivals2015
Here are our top picks for 2015!
Whether a festival is good for you depends on what music you’re into and what other things you like doing at festivals, as well as the age of your kids. If you are new to festivals with kids, you may want to read our guide to Choosing the right Family-Friendly Festival.
We have included our affiliate links in the listings – if you click “Buy Tickets Now” you will go straight to the ticket page for your chosen festival. You will not pay anything for this but the festival will give us a small commission to keep Festival Kidz up and running – so please use them!
WOMAD 2013 Review
In the words of my 5 year old: “I wish it could be WOMAD everyday”
Confession time, we were WOMAD virgins but this only added to the excitement of setting off on our five and a half hour journey to Charlton Park and our very first WOMAD experience.
Just as we were packed up and ready to leave home at 6.20 am the rain came. Nothing to worry about as we had managed to get everything in our trusted Dolly (our camper van) and at least we were dry.
Ten minutes into our journey and we were starting to worry a little as the heavens opened and just being able to see the road ahead of us was a struggle. Thoughts of “NO please don’t let this be how our first WOMAD is going to be” entered our heads but there was no use in worrying, what will be will be!
WOMAD 2012 Parent Review
Taking 4 kids to WOMAD? Not a problem…!
Parent Review by the Dersons Family
My husband and I, and our 4 children, enjoyed a wonderful weekend of mind-blowing sounds, amazing sights and delightful tastes at WOMAD, Charlton Park.
Having packed everything required for the wide variety of weather that could come our way we arrived at WOMAD in the scorching heat and quickly had to find sunhats and sun cream. We hired a cart to take our huge amounts of stuff from our van to the our camping spot and before long we were set up and the children were cooling their feet in buckets full of cold water!
We had paid extra for Thursday tickets and arrived at 11am, the campsite was already busy and buzzing with anticipation.
Being there early gave us and the children an opportunity to get to know the site and to take in the sights, sounds and smells. The children’s area was not yet open so could spend our time exploring. A lovely evening was finished off with an energetic dance to the Soul Rebels.
Top 15 Music Festivals for Under-5’s – 2012
Top Festivals for Babies and Toddlers 2012 (for 2013 – click HERE!)
For really young kids we tend to recommend smaller festivals, particularly if you are not an experienced festival-goer. Smaller festivals have the dual advantage of not being so vast that a trip back to the tent for a forgotten dummy takes half the morning, and the stage areas are usually less crowded meaning you can get closer to the bands without fearing your little one getting accidentally trampled on or lost. That said, smaller festivals often don’t have as much budget for children’s activities, so your choice will also depend a little on the level of laid-on entertainment that your family need.
It really is very hard to choose from all the festivals that take place in the UK each year. But if we have to narrow it down, our short-list of the best festivals to take your really little ones to goes a little like this:
WOMAD 2015 Review
With Hazel Kaye (5), Gwilym Kaye (3), Caroline Gilbert and Tim Kaye.
Let me just say at the outset that it rained at Womad, not just heavily but torrentially then stopped then rained again.
Now I am not one to whimper at the first sign of a bit of water from above but this review is tempered by the fact that this brilliant festival endured a WOMUD year.
Having said that, it is obvious the event provides so much to enlighten, entertain and enhance both young and old minds.
We’ve wanted to go to the festival of world music for so long we can safely say that it did not disappoint. It has a feel of a small, intimate and exciting festival and yet it’s the biggest stage for acts from around the world.
Read more…Best Family Festivals 2014
Here are our top picks for 2014!
Now is a great time to start thinking about buying your festival tickets – most of the festivals offer ‘early bird’ prices, which means they are reduced if you book them early.
Whether a festival is good for you depends on what music you’re into and what other things you like doing at festivals, as well as the age of your kids. If you are new to festivals with kids, you may want to read our guide to Choosing the right Family-Friendly Festival. Read more…
Festival Kidz Team: Our Picks 2013
Every year we face the same dilemmas – Do we go to our favourites, the ones we know and love, where the kids feel at home?
Or do we try out some new ones, potentially discover something amazing, and widen our knowledge of great festivals to recommend to all you lovely families out there?
We’re very lucky in that we get invited to far more than we can manage to attend… but the reality is that with kids (or even without kids) it’s just too tiring (and expensive!) so we’ve had to learn to pick and choose.
Here are the festivals we’ve picked this year and why Read more…
WOMAD 2012 Review
After several festivals in awful weather this year… mud, gales, rain, more mud… I wasn’t sure I could face another one. But at the last minute I had been offered a ticket to WOMAD and as it’s been on my wishlist for a few years, and I wasn’t committed to anything else, it felt too good an opportunity to miss.
My husband couldn’t get time off work, so I took the girls on my own – they’re a bit older now at 9 and 7 and very comfortable in a festival environment so I figured we’d be OK. I wouldn’t baulk at taking them to a smaller festival on my own, but I did think twice about WOMAD because 20,000 people is a sizeable crowd. But I needn’t have worried – turns out the WOMAD crowd are the most chilled, friendly and relaxed bunch of people I have ever shared a festival with! Even the security staff had time for a friendly chat and smile as you went through. Read more…
Our pick of the Festivals 2012
Choosing from the hundreds of excellent family-friendly festivals out there is really really tough.
Many families will place a different importance to different aspects. Personally I don’t like my festivals too crowded, I like quality music but I’m not so bothered by big names, and most importantly I like a good range of workshops and street theatre to keep everyone entertained. But people always ask me which are the best festivals for kids so here is my shortlist – the ones which I think have something extra-special about them: Read more…