Announcing the 2nd annual Festival Kidz Awards!
2014 was a fantastic year for family friendly festivals – we reviewed more than ever before and visited so many that it made judging the awards extremely difficult. If your favourite festival is missing from this list, please feel free to comment below!
Festival Kidz Gold Award Winners
(in alphabetical order)
Blissfields has always put on exceptional entertainment for children and adults, with a wonderful kids’ area run by Angel Gardens. It was a Silver Award winner last year because of its rubbish problem – they fixed that by paying for rubbish this year – it sounds silly but it worked! Added to that the improvement of their toilets from last year and it easily reached the Festival Kidz gold standard. See our 2014 review of Blissfields.
Chilled in a Field went from strength to strength this year and put on an amazing festival especially considering its size. The only festival with its own miniature railway (to my knowledge). Exceptional in every way, and although lacking in any large scale entertainment it had so many different things to do it kept families happy all weekend. See our 2014 review of Chilled in a Field.
Deer Shed was an absolutely wonderful little festival that shone brightly in its fifth year. It provides excellent family entertainment, including a strong line up and tons of things for children to do. See our 2014 review of Deer Shed.
Green Gathering was new to Festival Kidz this year, but is already a firm favourite. Relaxed and friendly, its exceptional children’s activities, facilities and green credentials meant that it sailed straight into Gold. See our 2014 review of Green Gathering.
Green Man remains at the top of its game – there’s so much to do and see without losing its safe and extremely family friendly vibe. It has exceptional camping, activities for children and entertainment for adults. See our 2014 review of Green Man.
Just So Festival is aimed squarely at young families and delivers a magical festival every year. See our 2014 review of Just So.
Larmer Tree is a solid family choice – with an outstanding campsite, facilities, and range of entertainment and activities on offer it maintained its Gold standard for another year. See our 2014 review of Larmer Tree.
Shambala Festival was the well deserved winner of our 2013 Festival of the Year award, and it retained its Gold standard in 2014. With a new back to nature area for children, exceptional green creditionals, exceptional entertainment and child friendly activities across the site, it is one of the best festivals that adults can enjoy as much as the children. See our 2014 review of Shambala.
Womad has such a wealth of entertainment for everyone – it manages to be large without feeling overcrowded. It is exceptional for children’s activities and has such a variety of music it is impossible to be disappointed. However it remains true to its roots, and its outstanding green credentials gives it a well deserved Gold Award. See our 2013 review of Womad. (unfortunately our 2014 reviewer was unable to write one)
Wood is small yet exceptional in every category – it is set in a beautiful location with exceptional facilities, activities and green credentials. Congratulations to Wood for achieving Gold this year! See our 2014 review of Wood.
Festival Kidz Silver Award Winners
(in alphabetical order)
3 Wishes Faery Fest is a gorgeous little festival and a favourite of our readers, especially the faeries among us!
Bearded Theory dropped down from Gold to Silver this year because of the state of the toilets. It remains a brilliant festival – great music, entertainment, a lovely festival vibe and an outstanding Kid’s area run by Angel Gardens. I’m sure they’ll listen to feedback and sort out their facilities problems to win Gold next year! See our 2014 review of Bearded Theory.
Beverley Folk Festival is a lovely and friendly little local festival and an excellent all rounder, which put it easily into our Silver Award category. See our 2014 review of Beverley.
Camp Bestival is well known as an outstanding family friendly festival and this year it impressed our reviewer enough to award it a Silver. It is such a big festival that it has problems with camping facilities and crowds, but if you’re looking for the best in music and entertainment it’s hard to beat. See our 2014 review of Camp Bestival.
Cornbury is a lovely little all rounder, which scored good points in most categories – there was just not quite enough to push it into a Gold category. See our 2014 review of Cornbury.
Elderflower Fields is an excellent little outdoorsy festival for your active children with a delicious Sunday communal picnic included in your ticket. See our 2014 review of Elderflower Fields.
Jimmy’s Sausage and Beer Festival was new this year but impressed the Festival Kidz team with its fantastic mix of music and food. It was only let down slightly by its camping facilities, so hopefully it will be perfect in 2015 and we’re looking forward to it! See our 2014 review of Jimmy’s Festival.
Lakefest is only 2 years old but has already established itself on the festival calendar as a wonderfully family friendly festival, with a great lineup and even watersports! See our 2014 review of Lakefest.
Starry Skies, while not technically a festival, is an outstanding festival-like holiday. With nature activities for the children and a wonderfully friendly vibe, this makes a fantastic weekend away for families who love festivals but want to enjoy the camping and activities in a more relaxed way. See our 2014 review of Starry Skies.
Wilderness has so much to offer, and is unique in its mix of gourmet food, top class entertainment and wonderfully chilled out vibe. However it can only be a Silver while it remains so expensive. But if you have the cash to splash, we say go for it! See our 2014 review of Wilderness.
Many thanks to our team of reviewers, who visited all these wonderful festivals and marked them for us.
What stood out for us this year when judging the awards was how difficult it was to do because there are now so many fantastic quality family friendly festivals out there. If a festival is missing from this list it doesn’t necessarily mean there was anything wrong with it, just that there was a lot of competition!
We considered and rated the festivals in the following categories: Toilets, Camping, Quality of Children’s workshops, Entertainment for Adults, Children’s food options, Value for Money and Green Credentials.
To win a Gold Award, a festival had to be exceptional in some of the categories, good in the rest, poor in none.
To win a Silver Award, a festival had to be exceptional or good in most categories and may have scored poorly in one of the categories.
Because we considered so many more festivals in 2014, we needed to be harsher at judging them – so some festivals have slipped from Gold to Silver through no fault of their own. All our Gold and Silver winners are wonderful festivals that we highly recommend to families.
Please remember, if we don’t visit your festival it will not be entered into our awards… Please email us at info@festivalkidz.com, offer us a family ticket to your festival and we will try to get one of our reviewers along in 2015!
We’ve counted your votes, find out who won the
Families’ Choice Festival of the Year award!