Festivals

[teaandtoastwithmarmite]

I'm lying in bed thinking this time tomorrow night I'll be in a tent wondering why I do this to myself. And started my period a week early as well! I'm kind of looking forward to it though. But not been to a festival in 12 years and DD 9 is now coming due to the family member not being able to look after her. We have quite a big tent and proper camp beds. Please tell me it will be fun

I went to Latitude last weekend. It was the first time in about 7 years that I camped. I absolutely adored it. There were loads of families there with children around your daughter's age and they all looked to be having fun.

It will be what you make it!

Which one are you going to? We’re off to Y Not tomorrow, hoping it won’t be too wild for our DDs to enjoy themselves (12 & 10).

Aah love these replies. Yes it is y not. She isn't really up for it but I think she will love it.

Hope your DD's enjoy it @SlipperyLizard

Is it Camp Bestival? I'll be there too!

It's the first time I've ever camped at a music festival and I'm bringing DH and the two DCs. What have I let myself in for? Everyone is pretty excited about it!

I'm going to Kendal calling tomorrow with two children aged 4 and 2 I must be crazy haha

Ah love these. And I hope you all enjoy them. We went to Moseley folk festival last year and she loved that. Going again this year. That wasn't camping though.

Y Not. Is bestival good (if you've been before)?

Following - I’m off to my first ever festival next week ( Rewind north ) . Me and my friend both planning on reliving our 80s youth and ignoring bad backs , and mid life fatigue . Please tell me it will be all ok

I've done Y Not a few times and it's a really family friendly atmosphere there with lots going on 👍🏼 enjoy!

Good to know Y Not is good for families, we did beautiful days years ago & it was great but DDs were too young to let us enjoy ourselves properly, hoping they might have some independence this weekend.

are you in family camping @teaandtoastwithmarmite ?

@cockeyedoptimist I’ve only ever done Rewind South but had a lot of fun, hope North is as good!

@SlipperyLizard not in family camping as going with quite a few other people including some of DH's family but at least camping with people we know.

you'll have a great time I’m sure - we’ve got friends coming with same age kids but not til tomorrow so no hope we’ll be camped together unfortunately

Have fun op! I'm off to Womad tomorrow and so excited as it's been cancelled for the last two years!! Embrace the madness, take some nice snacks and drinks, fairy lights, warm clothing for the evening and enjoy 😁After the last few years it's nice we are all going out into the world of festivals again, feel quite emotional about it really!

I went to standon calling last weekend…..that’s very family friendly. I had a great time

this time next week I’ll be heading off to wilderness for another great festival

Were going to a festival for the day (well maybe just evening) next week and seriously thinking of sleeping there overnight rather than go to our cottage

I always swore I would never camp

@hellswelshy aah that's lovely. This has been delayed for two years. DH went with family 3 years ago. I didn't go and stayed home with DD. The weather was horrendous so I hope it's a bit better.

Enjoy!

do it. I swore I was going to get a B and B but it's very expensive

@cockeyedoptimist if you've a bad back please take a decent self inflating mattress, it will make all the difference!

Anyone got to ynot yet who is going? We're on our way and sil and cil saying it's chaos and camp where you can

@teaandtoastwithmarmite you always camp where you can at a festival, unless you've paid for the family camping field.
I've been Kendal calling, ynot, camp bestival and beautiful days, among others. A festival is what you make it with kids .

@teaandtoastwithmarmite i’m interested to hear how you found Y Not?

It was a mixed bag for us, bad points:

• we queued for 3 hours (after about a 40 minutes queue to park) to get into the family campsite, with no toilet provision & no clue as to why it was taking so long;
• there weren’t enough showers in the family camping area;
• After day 1, the whole idea of a family camping area seemed to be abandoned (no checks were made on people entering);
• There was no decent cider - on thurs it was fruit rekorderlig at £5.80 for a 330ml can, after that the hog & barrel sold pints but both were sickly sweet;
• toilets in the arena were badly organised - urinals plonked where people needed to queue made everyone feel awkward;
• we were kept awake by a sound system somewhere playing dance music until 2am - given the family campsite is meant to be quieter, permitting a sound system to play (which was not in our campsite) so it could be heard across the whole site is just annoying;
• Security generally seemed lax.

Good points:

• We saw some great bands;
• Some of the kids stuff was good, and the cinema was useful;
• Because security was so lax, no one was checking bags on the way into the arena so I was able to take my own cider in - by the sheer volume of magners/thatchers cans on the ground I was not alone. Why the organisers cocked up the cider provision is a mystery;
• The free tins of Coke Zero were very welcome.

We won’t be back, but glad we tried it while the kids were able to go for free.