Reviews
The good bits, the bad bits; all the fun and frolics of a festival brought to you by Festival Kidz reviews… and don’t forget the mud!
Shambala 2012 Review
After having over a week to think about my Shambala experience this year, I can safely say that it has been my favourite yet! More kids than ever, good food, peaceful camping and a great crowd. Read more…
Bingley Music Live 2012 Review
Bingley Music Live 2012 Review
This review was very kindly shared from the lovely people at Yorkshire Festivals – The Complete Guide to Festivals in Yorkshire.
Visit the Yorkshire Festivals website for the low-down on all types of festivals in Yorkshire – from food festivals to music to arts and literature festivals.
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Over the last few years this once small festival has grown in both size and popularity. We attended the very first one back in 2007 when it was a 2 day festival with not much other than a stage and a bar. This year’s festival was a 3 day affair with 3 stages, a Kid’s Zone and a range of food stalls. However it was still only £45 for a weekend ticket which looked like great value.
Read more…
Towersey Festival 2012 Review
Towersey Village Festival 2012
Parent Review submitted by Clairem (with a 3yr old)
General – Really great and so cheap compared to other festivals at £8 a day for the main showground and under 5’s free. Very safe as quite compact. Showground area is separate to the music venues (it costs more for full access to all the venues and for camping). I only went as a showground entrant but music sounded good. Liked the idea of it being a separate area as it made it very family safe and indeed there were a lot of young families. It was warm to hot this year, but there were plenty of covered areas if it had rained.
Kid’s stuff – Great kids line up, Read more…
Festibelly 2012 Review
Festibelly 2012
Review by Mark and Sue (with two kids aged 9 and 7)
Getting there – No queues. The carparking field was a bit of a challenge to get into with ruts and a steep entrance but we managed OK. It wasn’t far to carry our stuff as the camping was in the field next to the carpark.
When we arrived, no one seemed to know if there was a separate family camping area so we were directed to a spot closest to the Owlery kid’s area. Unfortunately for us, this turned out to be the worst place for a family to camp because it was also adjacent to the Terrapin Station which was open and full of partying people until 5am!!
Greenman Festival 2012 Review
So even though I live very close and have passed the wonderful Glan Usk Park many times, 2012 was the first time we had ventured into Greenman itself.
We, the family (made up of myself, James the only-been-13-for-a-week-so-don’t-shout-Teenager, Sam the wonderfully interesting 11 year old and my sister who had travelled up from her ‘normal’ life in London to stay with us for the summer) and I, packed up and were ready to go on the Thursday but as the heavens opened and the thought of pitching a tent in the mud became a real possibility, we decided to do a non-camping-weekend away. We met up with lots of friends inside, most of them were treating it as their only holiday this year, some were working hard as stewards and all were having a great time.
Even with our trips back and forth to Greenman, we had a blast and didn’t feel like we were missing out. The whole set up within a country estate meant that we never felt the presence of a big fence or heavy handed security. The only real issue with being inside Glanusk was that it is far from a flat site and with the mud, it was treacherous for the buggies and trolleys that took up residence around the foot of the hill at the main Mountain Stage arena.
Beautiful Days 2012 Review
Beautiful Days Festival 2012
By Lisa from ‘We Don’t Eat Anything With A Face’
The law of averages should have meant that our third festival of the year was a dry one, having been to two wet and muddy festivals earlier in the year, but no; When we arrived at the rural Devon campsite for our first Beautiful Days festival, it was peeing down with precipitation.
Deershed 2012 Review
We weren’t able to get along to Deershed ourselves this year, but the feedback from all the families we have spoken to has been very positive.
Here are a couple reviews from families who did go:
Createfivetwo.tumblr.com/create-52-2-deer-shed-3-festival-review
Festivalsforall.com/a-weekend-of-smiles-at-deer-shed
Thanks to Andy Tattersall and Linda from Festivals For All for the links x
VW Whitenoise 2012 Review
I have always liked the idea of owning a VW Camper, but we’ll come to that later.
We went along to VW Whitenoise having no preconceptions of what to expect, having never been to a festival of this ilk before. It was quickly apparent that there was a large VW family to which we didn’t feel part of due to not owning a VW yet… but this didn’t matter a bit to our 3 year daughter who threw herself into the thick of things.
Jelly Festival 2012 Review
Set in the beautiful grounds of Compton Hall in Norfolk, Jelly Festival celebrated it’s fifth year and landed on one of the hottest days of the year so far, lucky considering so many festivals have either been cancelled or had difficulties due to the dreadful British Summer we have had so far.
We arrived at midday and drove in easily and were directed by stewards to the carpark. The walk to the main arena was less than 5 minutes.
The first thing we noticed was how small the festival site was and yet there seemed to be a lot crammed in. There was a main stage called the Living Room (which was decorated like someone’s living room funnily enough) the Bedroom Big Top, the Observatory Dance Dome, Summerhouse Cocktail Bar, and the Reggae Rumpus room. Due to the small size of the site there was a lot of sound bleed and I found I couldn’t really hear the individual stage’s music. So possibly too many stages for the size of the site.
Just So Festival 2012 Review
2012 Just So Festival weather: Sunny and warm, but with heavy showers.
2012 was the third Just So Festival. You won’t find commercialism or big children’s TV characters here, just boundless opportunities to play and explore in a magical journey through the woods. This is not just a festival… this is a place where kids and families can come together in the beauty of imagination. The organisers are not professional festival managers by trade, rather it is led by two incredibly artistic mums and a devoted team who are all inspired to create a special and creative weekend for families to share. They care passionately about the event and it shows.
————————————————————————————
Review by: Claire Archbold (with 1 child aged 2.5)
Getting to the festival and setting up camp
Getting to the festival was easy – we put in the satnav postcode from their website and it was a doddle but we did almost miss the ‘Weekend Camping Entrance’ sign as it wasn’t very obvious. No long traffic queues, helpful car parking attendants and a very small queue for wrist bands.
Shambala 2012 Review
After having over a week to think about my Shambala experience this year, I can safely say that it has been my favourite yet! More kids than ever, good food, peaceful camping and a great crowd. Read more…
Towersey Festival 2012 Review
Towersey Village Festival 2012
Parent Review submitted by Clairem (with a 3yr old)
General – Really great and so cheap compared to other festivals at £8 a day for the main showground and under 5’s free. Very safe as quite compact. Showground area is separate to the music venues (it costs more for full access to all the venues and for camping). I only went as a showground entrant but music sounded good. Liked the idea of it being a separate area as it made it very family safe and indeed there were a lot of young families. It was warm to hot this year, but there were plenty of covered areas if it had rained.
Kid’s stuff – Great kids line up, Read more…
Greenman Festival 2012 Review
So even though I live very close and have passed the wonderful Glan Usk Park many times, 2012 was the first time we had ventured into Greenman itself.
We, the family (made up of myself, James the only-been-13-for-a-week-so-don’t-shout-Teenager, Sam the wonderfully interesting 11 year old and my sister who had travelled up from her ‘normal’ life in London to stay with us for the summer) and I, packed up and were ready to go on the Thursday but as the heavens opened and the thought of pitching a tent in the mud became a real possibility, we decided to do a non-camping-weekend away. We met up with lots of friends inside, most of them were treating it as their only holiday this year, some were working hard as stewards and all were having a great time.
Even with our trips back and forth to Greenman, we had a blast and didn’t feel like we were missing out. The whole set up within a country estate meant that we never felt the presence of a big fence or heavy handed security. The only real issue with being inside Glanusk was that it is far from a flat site and with the mud, it was treacherous for the buggies and trolleys that took up residence around the foot of the hill at the main Mountain Stage arena.
Deershed 2012 Review
We weren’t able to get along to Deershed ourselves this year, but the feedback from all the families we have spoken to has been very positive.
Here are a couple reviews from families who did go:
Createfivetwo.tumblr.com/create-52-2-deer-shed-3-festival-review
Festivalsforall.com/a-weekend-of-smiles-at-deer-shed
Thanks to Andy Tattersall and Linda from Festivals For All for the links x
Jelly Festival 2012 Review
Set in the beautiful grounds of Compton Hall in Norfolk, Jelly Festival celebrated it’s fifth year and landed on one of the hottest days of the year so far, lucky considering so many festivals have either been cancelled or had difficulties due to the dreadful British Summer we have had so far.
We arrived at midday and drove in easily and were directed by stewards to the carpark. The walk to the main arena was less than 5 minutes.
The first thing we noticed was how small the festival site was and yet there seemed to be a lot crammed in. There was a main stage called the Living Room (which was decorated like someone’s living room funnily enough) the Bedroom Big Top, the Observatory Dance Dome, Summerhouse Cocktail Bar, and the Reggae Rumpus room. Due to the small size of the site there was a lot of sound bleed and I found I couldn’t really hear the individual stage’s music. So possibly too many stages for the size of the site.
Bingley Music Live 2012 Review
Bingley Music Live 2012 Review
This review was very kindly shared from the lovely people at Yorkshire Festivals – The Complete Guide to Festivals in Yorkshire.
Visit the Yorkshire Festivals website for the low-down on all types of festivals in Yorkshire – from food festivals to music to arts and literature festivals.
—
Over the last few years this once small festival has grown in both size and popularity. We attended the very first one back in 2007 when it was a 2 day festival with not much other than a stage and a bar. This year’s festival was a 3 day affair with 3 stages, a Kid’s Zone and a range of food stalls. However it was still only £45 for a weekend ticket which looked like great value.
Read more…
Festibelly 2012 Review
Festibelly 2012
Review by Mark and Sue (with two kids aged 9 and 7)
Getting there – No queues. The carparking field was a bit of a challenge to get into with ruts and a steep entrance but we managed OK. It wasn’t far to carry our stuff as the camping was in the field next to the carpark.
When we arrived, no one seemed to know if there was a separate family camping area so we were directed to a spot closest to the Owlery kid’s area. Unfortunately for us, this turned out to be the worst place for a family to camp because it was also adjacent to the Terrapin Station which was open and full of partying people until 5am!!
Beautiful Days 2012 Review
Beautiful Days Festival 2012
By Lisa from ‘We Don’t Eat Anything With A Face’
The law of averages should have meant that our third festival of the year was a dry one, having been to two wet and muddy festivals earlier in the year, but no; When we arrived at the rural Devon campsite for our first Beautiful Days festival, it was peeing down with precipitation.
VW Whitenoise 2012 Review
I have always liked the idea of owning a VW Camper, but we’ll come to that later.
We went along to VW Whitenoise having no preconceptions of what to expect, having never been to a festival of this ilk before. It was quickly apparent that there was a large VW family to which we didn’t feel part of due to not owning a VW yet… but this didn’t matter a bit to our 3 year daughter who threw herself into the thick of things.
Just So Festival 2012 Review
2012 Just So Festival weather: Sunny and warm, but with heavy showers.
2012 was the third Just So Festival. You won’t find commercialism or big children’s TV characters here, just boundless opportunities to play and explore in a magical journey through the woods. This is not just a festival… this is a place where kids and families can come together in the beauty of imagination. The organisers are not professional festival managers by trade, rather it is led by two incredibly artistic mums and a devoted team who are all inspired to create a special and creative weekend for families to share. They care passionately about the event and it shows.
————————————————————————————
Review by: Claire Archbold (with 1 child aged 2.5)
Getting to the festival and setting up camp
Getting to the festival was easy – we put in the satnav postcode from their website and it was a doddle but we did almost miss the ‘Weekend Camping Entrance’ sign as it wasn’t very obvious. No long traffic queues, helpful car parking attendants and a very small queue for wrist bands.