Would you take kids to a small independent music festival?

[festivalmum95]

I'm helping organise a small independent music festival on a farm in Somerset this May and we're trying to work out what actually makes festivals enjoyable for parents with kids.

We’re planning things like kids workshops, nature activities, good food, and keeping it fairly small (nothing like the chaos of the huge festivals).
If you go to festivals with children, what actually makes the experience good or terrible?

Would love to hear what people who have done it think!

I think DD (who is now 15) has always enjoyed the music. We’ve got pictures of her at 6 at her first festival on the front row with her ear defenders on. She’s off to Reading this year with a friend. She enjoys it more every year, but I’d say it’s defo the music and the vibe for her

DS (now 11) has been trickier at times, but we go with friends so that works well for him as he likes to get involved in various activities like I say. He’s a big foodie so enjoys trying different foods too. But honestly, give that kid a ferris wheel and an adult’s bank card and he’s very happy. He’s started to like the music more in the last year - he was up on someone’s shoulders for Kasabian last year.

Take a look at what Deer Shed do - it’s an amazing weekend and absolutely geared to keeping the whole family happy.

A particular favourite of my nieces is the construction zone…

Ime compost toilets are fine if clean.

I remember an awful festival where the toilets weren’t emptied enough and all,of them had a stack of poo higher than the loo seat! Dd refused to go and just weed at the edge of the campsite.

We glamp, so toilets have never been a massive concern. The ones in the main areas of Camp Bestival were always the compost ones, and at Truck they’re portaloos. Both are small enough to retreat to the nice loos if needed though. I think I took a potty for the first year at Camp Bestival when DS was quite little. A couple of the smaller festivals we’ve done haven’t had enough toilets - in my experience it’s the waiting that’s tricky with kids.

We’ve taken our kids to festivals since they were babies, and I would say the best bits have been:

Kids areas
Play tent - with toys, books, ride ons etc
Craft activities - junk modelling, make a dream catcher, animal craft etc
Story telling
Evening disco
Parades or drumming groups, that move around the site and children can join
Kids only toilets (they are generally much cleaner than normal portaloos)
Breastfeeding area/tent (nice to have somewhere quiet/dry to sit and feed)
Wristbands that you can write your phone numbers on incase they get lost

@Pharos thanks, just took a look now! Their under 5 section has thought of everything!! Will see what I can pull over for Show of Hands

Bouncy castles
Face paint / glitter station
Fair ride eg carousel or flying chairs
Basicallly lots of small things to keep them
entwrtained / work as blackmail between music

@SellFridges That’s interesting. I can imagine glamping is easier not to worry about set up and take down with glamping!

Would most people prefer to camp with kids by bringing their own stuff, stay nearby, live in vechicle or, glamping?

Just stuff that can be set up in a marquee and left loosely supervised for the day - colouring, stamps, old material to stick on things, old CDs, jewels, that sort of thing - meaning children can access it at any time, don't have to queue, don't have to be at an activity for the time it starts etc.

We had a bit of a rubbish time once at a festival where all crafts were strictly Under 4s or 5-7 or 8+ etc at very structured times. This was a nightmare for siblings and also seemed to completely misjudge the ages of children who'd enjoy the crafts! Festivals should be relaxed and easy.

Another vote for just so.

DD went to her first festival as a day visitor at 12m, and camped at 2. Ds camped from 10m.

When they were tiny:
Breast feeding tent, nappy changing space, baby bath time - hot water, baby baths and bubbles.when they got bigger
Sensory play and music activities.
Painting with water pistols
Hammocks in woodland for chilling out
Making things out of clay. Either clay faces on trees or pots on a wheel. (Not fired, and recyclable).
Woodland skills- using hammer and saw to make wooden badges or to work collaboratively on a den (every family cuts down and nails another plank to the structure.
Sand pit
Ice cream without long queues.
Family ceilidh
Always loved storytelling and Campfires

Now they're concerned about charging points and midnight raves.

didnt take mine until about 10, at that age you just need bands who sing catchy music not too dodgy lyrics. A fun and games area works well and doesn’t have to cost too much, eg sports, circus skills, crafts. The little festival I went to last year had a villagers vs rest of the world 10 over cricket match which went down well, village won as they knew it was happening whereas us visitors had no sober potential players

Took mine as preschoolers to End of the Road and Starry Skies, we liked:
Family camping area far enough from main stage that they could sleep but not so far that we couldn't get them there in a trolley
Spacious/not too crowded
Cinema tent with Wallace & Gromit on
Woodland area with mud kitchen/ DIY dens
Good food
Craft tent
Family disco so not everyone was battered

We hated:
The sand pit (well I did, when I had to get it out of the sleeping bag later!)

Ps was looking at your festival op, shame it’s not starring the Show of Hands (saw their last gig) but Steve is good on his own. Think we might just go to the festival in my town though as means I can sleep in a bed!

Shrewsbury Folk Festival do this well - activities for different ages, segregated broadly by age - e.g circus skills for older children.

The dance tent is always popular for tweens and up - ceilidh skills etc.

Their lantern parade - lanterns made by the children during the course of the festival and then round the festival site on Sunday evening goes down well.

@tutugogo Hope the gig was good! Getting the whole band would be amazing, maybe a year two dream. Steve’s been very supportive which is lovely and we’re excited to have him 😃

Thanks for all the tips, the villagers vs visitors cricket match sounds hilarious by the way! 😂

I would absolutely prefer to have the kids bit in a corner, that way you can arrange to meet people there, the most difficult think about a festival is the traipsing around trying to find things, and people, when there's no phone signal. I don't want to be wandering around trying to find the flower crown stall. I want to sit in the middle of a fenced bit while they are busied, knowing that they wont disappear at any minute. Fence them into a corner!

If you can say you're in the kids field, or people know that's where you're likely to be, it makes it easier to meet people. Shambala does a really good job of the kids field and being family friendly while also being very adult friendly.

@TheVeryAngryCaterpillar It’s really interesting seeing how kids needs change as they get older for festivals! We’re keeping Show of Hands quite small (around 2,000 people) so it’ll be interesting to see what kids age range mix we end up with!

At the moment, we've grouped it to have under 3s free and under 12s £22 for the weekend and then a cheaper teenage ticket and are planning quite a few daytime activities for children with also some baby sensory activites and a baby chill out zone.

What age do children tend to stop wanting to do the kids tent type activities? Is 12 too old for that sort of thing? Or are there good activities for 13+

Family camping field! My partners childhood wasn’t took his son to download festival on his own when his son was 7!! The family camping area was brilliant and loads of people willing to help him get the tent up in pouring rain etc

Mine loved Guilfest and Weyfest - lots of activities, and very safe and welcoming. Maybe check over their websites to see what they do and see if you can replicate. Weyfest sadly hasn't run since 2024 but their website is still up and there are hopes it will return.

@GoldDuster That’s a super helpful point actually. Show of Hands will be quite small, we’re hoping it’ll be fairly easy to bump into people without trekking across a huge site. But I can definitely see how it’s nice to have a go-to zone as well even at our scale. Do kids tend to stay up for evening music or is it mostly a daytime thing for families?

I was a trader at Just So Festival and I second the previous post — they really get it right! It’s definitely worth checking out.

One of the things I loved most was that everyone is assigned to a team for the whole festival. Throughout the weekend you can take part in different activities to earn points for your team, which are displayed on a big scoreboard in the main field. Think arts and crafts, field games, and lots of fun challenges.

The teams are named after animals, and there are huge craft tents where you can make costumes ready for the end-of-festival prize giving and awards ceremony. It creates such a great sense of fun and community.

@hairyunicorn Oh love that! Camp Wildfire do something similar with team names and points, really enjoyed it. Creating that community feel is something we're also thinking a lot about! We're giving participants a chance to vote and implement ideas into the festival, also want to make sure kids feel involved in that as well. Will see if we can bring that energy to the South West!