Big Love Festival

Big Love Festival is a small festival with a big heart, Curated by a small team of festival goers and party instigators this festival captures the hearts of every age and taste. A million miles away from big, corporate events, its long held a reputation as one of the scene’s friendliest independent small festivals.

Set in the stunning South Wales countryside with ample family camping welcoming campers from Thursday midday with some light entertainment and a settling-in day before the festival properly starts on Friday. Regularly hosting over 130 live acts and DJs, plus circus performance, creative workshops, comedy and art installations.

Taking place just 20 minutes from the M4 at Newport on the England/Wales border amongst glorious rolling fields, enchanting woodland enhanced with incredible décor, and even an Iron Age hill fort!

This year there are over 130 acts across four stages plus a big top with music to suit just about every taste, from indie, drum ’n’ bass, and dub, to folk, house and disco. Beyond the main stage, you’ll find the gorgeous Woodland Stage hosting late night DJs, and elsewhere the vintage fire engine-turned DJ stage keeps the party going into the night. Big Love has a track record of spotting talent – they were one of the first festivals to book Ezra Collective and Ibibio Sound Machine back in 2016 – so you can expect some quality artists on their expanded Emerging Talent Stage.
New for 2024 is Cariad Bach (Welsh for Little Love) – the festival’s new kids area – and a massive circus big top, where you’ll find a whole world of fun, full of performances, workshops and adventures of the imagination.
Start the day with a family yoga session, or revive with a gourmet coffee as the children enjoy watching a morning movie in the Big Top.

Sit back and rest your dancing feet as you enjoy circus and theatre performances, including sky- high shows from Feathers of The Bird House Circus and under an umbrella of ‘Strange Weather’.

If that inspires you, take a flying lesson with the circus birds and learn some new skills with hands-on circus skills workshops.

Families can also star in a giant stop motion cinéma production that evolves over the weekend. Then, try your hand at tie-dye clothes up-cycling, or perhaps a clay model making session or a mask-making workshop. There will be giant bubble experiments too, face-painting and energetic youngsters can swing their hips in a side street hula disco.
For the younger festival goers, there’s a woodland teddy bear trail, organized by the Teddy Trust charity. They’ll also be collecting bears to donate to children in war-torn countries around the globe.
For the older kids there’s a free DJ Academy, where participants will get hands-on tuition on the decks from an experienced DJ instructor. Over the course of two days, they’ll learn the essential technical skills to help them create their own unique sound and set a dance floor alight. By the end of the weekend, the participants will be ready to show off their skills by each performing a short set to the whole festival.
There will also be a graffiti and street art workshop with an acclaimed artist whose murals have been displayed internationally.
Later on at Big Love, the kids can don headphones and choose which DJ to listen to in their own silent disco.

Once the moon rises the Big Top will be transformed with acts of unapologetic anarchic revelry in a fabulous late night cabaret. Conscious that big name festivals are a treat that many are struggling to justify in the cost of living crisis, Big Love’s organisers have set out to prove that taking a family to a festival doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Adult weekend tickets are priced at £150, teenagers’ £60, children £5 and under 5s free. There’s a totally flexible payment plan too, which allows tickets to be paid for in as many installments as you like.
To help reduce the cost for families, alongside some award-winning street food, Big Love is offering subsidised budget children’s meals prepared by the festival’s very own French chef!
With drinks at pub prices, and car and camper van passes priced at just £10 and £40 respectively,
there are no nasty add-on costs.

There’s so much more to Big Love than just music and kids’ activities though, with adult workshops, a healing and spa field (with saunas, and plunge pools!), hammock zone, cabaret and comedy, not to mention award-winning street food and even yummy cakes made on site!

Big Love’s more intimate scale means no long walks from the car park or campsite, so you spend less time walking and more time dancing. There’s plenty of room for kids to run around and for teenagers to enjoy some independence, without worrying about them getting lost. At Big Love you’re pretty much guaranteed to make new friends!

Tickets https://biglovefestival.co.uk/