Advice
Essential information, advice and tips to improve your festival experience. Your first family festival? Here are some things to consider before taking the plunge!
You’ll find answers to the problems of carting your kids around and choosing a festival trolley. As well as advice on the practical side of camping, washing, feeding your family , going solo, sleeping, coping with mud and surviving festival toilets!
It can be difficult to decide what camping equipment to get, so here’s our advice on buying tents, inflatable tents, camping chairs, flags and windsocks, ear defenders and portable fire pits.
Or maybe you’re worried about taking babies, toddlers or teenagers to festivals.
If you have nightmares about packing, make sure you download our handy family camping packing list and have a look at our parents’ top 5 packing tips.
Coping with mud and rain
muddy festivals … oh joy.
Of course, we all hope and pray that the sun will shine all weekend and we can bask in the glory of its soft warm glow, chilling with a cold beer, lazing on the grass, kids dancing around happily to the beats from the stage… ah bliss!
But occasionally the dreams just don’t happen and it’s a good idea to have some plans in place in case of wet weather. It doesn’t take much rain for several thousand pairs of feet to turn a grassy field into a mud bath.
Festival Trolley and Wagon Guide
So you want a festival trolley but you’re not sure which to go for? Whether you want to buy a ready made one or make one yourself, here’s all the information you need!
Carting Kids Round Festivals
Pushchairs, Wagons, Slings, Carriers and Buggies
Pushchairs, Wagons, Slings, Carriers and BuggiesI once read on the old Glastonbury advice page that parents should get a cheap £20 stroller from Argos and throw it away after the festival. WOW – I was so unimpressed by this comment!
Leaving aside the obvious environmental issues with that approach, for parents taking babies, a good buggy can make or break your festival experience. Can you imagine trying to get a cheap stroller through 6 inches of mud???!!
Surely we all want our festival experience to be easy and enjoyable?
Read more…Washing kids at a festival
Eeeww – smelly!
Eeeww – smelly!Well, it is a festival so normal rules on washing and personal hygiene tend to go out of the window for a few days.
Festival Survival Guide
Secrets to enjoying a festival with kids
Every year we get lots of parents asking us how to make a festival with kids fun rather than a weekend of stress.
The reality is that going to a festival with your kids is not such a crazy thing to do any more. There are hundreds of festivals that welcome families of all ages and there’s usually more to do there than at many other holiday destinations so, rather than begrudging being dragged along, chances are your kids will have even more fun than you!
Read more…
Your Teenager’s first festival?
A parent wrote to us asking about teenager festivals:
Our 16 year old is off to their first festival this year with some friends. They are all pretty sensible but I can’t help worrying.
Any advice?
Letting our kids spread their wings and explore the world is something all parents will wrestle with at some stage.
Teenage years are tricky – everyone tells you so. We want to give them space to grow and freedom to develop, but most importantly we want to keep them safe. Read more…
Beat the chill
Keeping warm at festivals
by Lisa Mills
One of the issues that comes up time and time again when I speak to parents considering a first festival with a child or baby is the fear of whether they’ll be able to keep them warm.
Family Camping Packing List
Here is our ultimate family camping packing list. You can also a printable version at the bottom of this page.
Of course all families’ needs are different, so we have included an editable version for you to download and adapt for your own family.
We hope you find this useful!
Building a fire
One of my favourite things about festivals is sitting round a campfire on a cold evening watching the flames. Jacket potatoes taste amazing when cooked in a real wood fire. Children love to toast marshmallows and poke the flames with sticks, and it helps them to learn about fire safety.
In my previous post I went through the equipment that is useful to have to cook on a fire. In this one I have provided a simple step by step guide to building and lighting one.
Building a fire is an essential survival skill and is great fun for kids too. My children enjoy collecting tinder, kindling and firewood among the trees. They appreciate the responsibility at being allowed to help light the fire.
Managing it and helping keeping it lit gives them a respect for fire. Of course close supervision is still necessary but leaving a child ‘in charge’ of keeping the fire going can be great for their confidence too.
Cooking on a fire
There’s something wonderful about building a proper wood fire with your children, and one of the highlights of our family festival time is always fireside cooking. It is also a great way to keep children warm and occupied in the evenings!
If you have never cooked on a fire before, I am writing a few posts about the equipment needed, how to build and light a fire, and simple things you can cook on it.
Make sure you check whether the festival allows fire pits first!
Coping with mud and rain
muddy festivals … oh joy.
Of course, we all hope and pray that the sun will shine all weekend and we can bask in the glory of its soft warm glow, chilling with a cold beer, lazing on the grass, kids dancing around happily to the beats from the stage… ah bliss!
But occasionally the dreams just don’t happen and it’s a good idea to have some plans in place in case of wet weather. It doesn’t take much rain for several thousand pairs of feet to turn a grassy field into a mud bath.
Carting Kids Round Festivals
Pushchairs, Wagons, Slings, Carriers and Buggies
I once read on the old Glastonbury advice page that parents should get a cheap £20 stroller from Argos and throw it away after the festival. WOW – I was so unimpressed by this comment!
Leaving aside the obvious environmental issues with that approach, for parents taking babies, a good buggy can make or break your festival experience. Can you imagine trying to get a cheap stroller through 6 inches of mud???!!
Surely we all want our festival experience to be easy and enjoyable?
Read more…Festival Survival Guide
Secrets to enjoying a festival with kids
Every year we get lots of parents asking us how to make a festival with kids fun rather than a weekend of stress.
The reality is that going to a festival with your kids is not such a crazy thing to do any more. There are hundreds of festivals that welcome families of all ages and there’s usually more to do there than at many other holiday destinations so, rather than begrudging being dragged along, chances are your kids will have even more fun than you!
Read more…
Beat the chill
Keeping warm at festivals
by Lisa Mills
One of the issues that comes up time and time again when I speak to parents considering a first festival with a child or baby is the fear of whether they’ll be able to keep them warm.
Building a fire
One of my favourite things about festivals is sitting round a campfire on a cold evening watching the flames. Jacket potatoes taste amazing when cooked in a real wood fire. Children love to toast marshmallows and poke the flames with sticks, and it helps them to learn about fire safety.
In my previous post I went through the equipment that is useful to have to cook on a fire. In this one I have provided a simple step by step guide to building and lighting one.
Building a fire is an essential survival skill and is great fun for kids too. My children enjoy collecting tinder, kindling and firewood among the trees. They appreciate the responsibility at being allowed to help light the fire.
Managing it and helping keeping it lit gives them a respect for fire. Of course close supervision is still necessary but leaving a child ‘in charge’ of keeping the fire going can be great for their confidence too.
Festival Trolley and Wagon Guide
So you want a festival trolley but you’re not sure which to go for? Whether you want to buy a ready made one or make one yourself, here’s all the information you need!
Washing kids at a festival
Eeeww – smelly!
Well, it is a festival so normal rules on washing and personal hygiene tend to go out of the window for a few days.
Your Teenager’s first festival?
A parent wrote to us asking about teenager festivals:
Our 16 year old is off to their first festival this year with some friends. They are all pretty sensible but I can’t help worrying.
Any advice?
Letting our kids spread their wings and explore the world is something all parents will wrestle with at some stage.
Teenage years are tricky – everyone tells you so. We want to give them space to grow and freedom to develop, but most importantly we want to keep them safe. Read more…
Family Camping Packing List
Here is our ultimate family camping packing list. You can also a printable version at the bottom of this page.
Of course all families’ needs are different, so we have included an editable version for you to download and adapt for your own family.
We hope you find this useful!
Cooking on a fire
There’s something wonderful about building a proper wood fire with your children, and one of the highlights of our family festival time is always fireside cooking. It is also a great way to keep children warm and occupied in the evenings!
If you have never cooked on a fire before, I am writing a few posts about the equipment needed, how to build and light a fire, and simple things you can cook on it.
Make sure you check whether the festival allows fire pits first!