The family friendly festival scene started in 2008, when Camp Bestival began to redefine the music festival from boozing in fields to a family friendly event. Since then, many organisers have cottoned onto how lucrative the family friendly market is. After all, music festivals should not only be beneficial to adults but fun for kids as well. Think festival stage hire, circus tents, performers, adventure courses and even petting zoos! As soon as the idea stuck that a festival could also be child friendly without boring adults, more and more have adapted this fun and engaging weekender for the whole family. All year round, there are festivals to choose from and here are the top 5 best family friendly festivals in the UK.
Latitude
Held at Henham Park, the Latitude festival will begin on July 12 and end on the 15th , this year. This is a great festival for the entire family and for all ages. While the parents enjoy the music, kids can take part in the arts and craft activities where they get to explore their inner artistic abilities, or join their theatre programme with live performances ranging from comedy and action to classic literature. For parents bringing along teens, they can enjoy the Greenpeace Camp which has fun activities from rope climbing, nets or swings, and there’s even a zipline.
Shambala
The Shambala Festival takes place in the Northamptonshire countryside across the four days on the August Bank Holiday Weekend. This year 2018, the Shambala Festival runs from the 23rd to the 26th of August. There are diverse musical performances with over 200 acts across 12 live stages. Not only does this festival provide good music, this is an event with a cause. Founded by a group of friends who met each other at Birmingham University, it advocates to promote the reduction of everyone’s carbon footprint. The founders are eco-friendly and this ethos is being promote in the festival. This year, the food carts at Shambala will be fully vegetarian with what is being sold from the stalls and festival goers are advised to bring their own reusable water bottle, or containers, which they can refill at filtered water dispensers available at all of the bars on the site. The organisers have estimated a reduction of waste by 10,000 plastic bottles.
Woodland Tribe
From the name of the festival itself, the Woodland Tribe is a place where the entire family can get creative and be constructive. Woodland Tribe’s concept was adopted from the best ideas of adventure playgrounds all over the world. Woodland Tribe is tied up with several of the popular festivals in UK like Camp Bestival and Shambala. This is the perfect children’s activity in a music festival.
Wickham Festival
First held in 2006, in a village community centre, the Wickham Festival has grown and transformed into a huge event featuring a variety of music genre and talented artists. The festival features folk music and world music alike. Held at Wickham, Hampshire, this year the festival begins runs the 2nd to the 5th of August. With four different stages set up, music enthusiasts can definitely enjoy their favorite tunes with a variety of genres to choose from. Wickham Festival is not just all about the music, they have a wide range of family activities to choose from which would be suitable for different ages. This year, they have opted for a puppet theatre, an arts and crafts tent called make ‘n’ take, cartoon cinema and storytelling. One major attraction this year is the invitation of Bubble Inc., a 10 time Guinness World Record breaker as the biggest bubble shop on earth.
Camp Bestival
Camp Bestival is a family oriented, relaxed and fun weekend festival held at East Lulworth from the 26th to the 29th of July this year. Camp Bestival was voted as the Best Family Festival from the Family Traveler Awards 2017. Each year, their festival has a theme, and this 2018, Camp Bestival decided to go for the nautical theme “Set Sail”. And since this is a themed festival, the entire family is encouraged to dress up according to the theme and go all out creative or crazy in costumes. Not only is this a music festival, but it has a mixture of art and creativity activities and different genres as well.
Womad
Womad this 2018 will take place at Charlton Park, Wiltshire on the 26th to the 29th of July. What’s striking about this festival is the mix of cultures in performances, from African drummers to bizarre and equally unique Mongolian throat singing. They also offer a wide array of exotic food from their stalls, which would definitely be a great experience for families with teens. Womad also offers arts and crafts for the kids which they will surely enjoy. They can also showcase their creations in the Children’s Parade of the carnival procession on Sunday.
Womad 2018 at Charlton
Every year, the festivals have different events planned and different artists that would be performing. It is best to plan ahead, a lot of these festivals offer early bird tickets at a promotional rate, perfect for large groups or families. If you have decided to bring your little ones, be sure to be prepared, they may seem to have limitless energy but can’t keep up with the adults. With so much to see, and so many things to do, always remember to bring the essentials with you. From reusable water bottles, a blanket for when it gets cold at night, hats and sunscreen during the day, wellies and jackets, picnic blanket to sit on, or a tent, wet wipes and anti-bacterial hand sanitizers, flashlights and of course one must not forget to bring a power bank for extra juice on your mobile phones.
But don’t forget, the main objective of these festivals is to have loads and loads of fun, not only with the entire family but with friends as well. Tagging the kids along may be quite challenging, but it can definitely turn out to be a fruitful event, as the experiences you share will be timeless. These memories will definitely worth sharing and be remembered for a lifetime.
Dylan Rives at a UK Festival
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