7 Tips for Taking Children to Summer Music Festivals
One of the most glorious things about the long-awaited UK summer is the arrival of the festivals.
Drawn-out sunny evenings in fields, watching the moon appear while your favorite band plays on the stage, new memories with friends and family.
The British summer isn’t always kind, but let’s face it — this is as good as it gets.
My favorite is Womad, for lots of reasons. We meet friends there, and I love the collection of music from around the world. I’m also familiar with it, so it feels like an old friend itself. It’s not too small to be boring and not too big to be overwhelming. It’s the medium porridge bowl for me. I’ve taken my son (now seven) about four times.
TOP TIPS FOR TAKING CHILDREN TO SUMMER FESTIVALS
Note: I’m a single parent of a single child, so adapt these tips where necessary.
1) For small kids, take a trolley. A gardening or camping trolley does the trick. This means you’ll be able to get your things from the car to the campsite easily (especially if it’s hot or if it’s raining). It also means you can pull the kids round in the evenings and they can lie under the stars on their pillows or sleeping bags feeling lucky while you boogie the night away at the main stage.
2) Bring fresh fruit and vegetables. Unless you’re planning to cook your main meals, meaning a lot of extra work, you’ll be eating the food on sale from the arena. It’s generally pretty good food, but not super-healthy, so fill in the gaps with apples, cherries and cucumbers, etc.
3) Consider a cooked breakfast shared amongst friends. Breakfast is a really special time of the day for us at Womad. We all gather and eat together. The meal is planned ahead of time, and different people are responsible for different days.
This year we had crab pizza one day (yes really), crumpet shakshuka another, then a mop-up day of bread and spreads on the final day. We chatted and laughed throughout and set ourselves up for the day. It’s very grounding for kids. In fact, one time we went, my son announced his favourite part of the whole festival was breakfast outside the tent.
4) Consider Park and Camp. This is a more expensive ticket, but it means you can take your car into the campground with you. The benefits are obvious: no carrying of all the equipment, no tired little legs (or whiny voices), dry clothes, more space to carry stuff, the list goes on. But these tickets sell out fast, so book ahead.
5) For slightly older kids, bring a small folding stool. If your child, like mine, loves to see the musicians and the stage, the stool is a great help. My son, at almost eight, is just getting too big for sitting on shoulders, meaning he can’t see a thing on the stages.
However, the crowd is so tame and so peaceful that kids often go right to the front of the crowd to watch by the barrier. The barriers are still high though, so a little stool helps them to see what’s going on.
6) Make a plan and make a deal. The kids are well catered-for at festivals like Womad. Decide, however, how happy you are going to be to hang out in World of Children making paper rockets or clay cats. My son got an hour and a half there a day, no more, so we could also go to take in the music to the full. It worked well.
7) No fiesta without a siesta. My friend told my son this one, and it swung him. This meant if he got up at 7 or 8 (due to the inevitable noisy neighbours), that would be fine, but we’d take a disco nap in the afternoon.
He railed against it each day but equally he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, then proceeded to party like a boss. It worked like a treat. Happy kids, happy parents.
Check out the festival at https://womad.co.uk
