OCTOBER | FEATURE
together through music. There are also
professional dancers, confetti blasts, and
pyro lighting that add to the atmosphere and
are enjoyed by young and old. Plus of course
the inflatables, face painting, fairground
rides and so on that kids go crazy for!”
want at a family festival - it was all very
informal. Aside from all the fun stuff, like
the music and inflatables, we thought about
practical things that matter to parents, too,
including ample baby changing facilities,
plenty of choice and reasonable prices for
food and refreshments, good parking and
so on.”
What family friendly aspects feature at the
event?
“The music is top quality, with DJ sets
from big names in dance music, so parents
are keen to hit the dance tents, but the
energy of the tunes is loved by kids too
and it’s a brilliant way for families to bond
Mother’s message
Elizabeth Nixon, mother to nine-year old Andre
(pictured left at Color Run), assesses the youth
festival market
As a keen festival goer myself and the
mother of a 9 year old who loves music I
decided to find a few festivals to take Andre
(my son) to this year. However as easy as
this task sounds with all the family friendly
festivals available in 2018 I actually found
it very difficult. Andre is passed the age
of getting excited over Mr Tumble, face
painting and the balloon animal guy, he
would much rather see Stormzy, Bruno Mars
and play Lazer tag – all of which can only be
experienced at adult targeted festivals.
I did consider Wireless, but after
contacting them about their children’s
facilities/family area I was told: “I’m sorry
there is no family area at this event. You
are welcome to bring children of over five if
you wish to but there aren’t any children’s
facilities.”
I also looked into British Summer Time as
Bruno Mars was performing and they sold
a guardian ticket and had a family area, but
this was so far away from the main stage
that Bruno Mars would have been a small
dot.
Andre and I did have a fantastic time at
the Color Run. We started off our day at the
warm up session where we did jumping
jacks, squats and running on the spot and
leaped in the air to catch the prizes being
thrown at the crowd (Andre caught a sweat
band). The 5k itself was lots of fun and
everyone seemed to be in good spirits, there
was an unspoken competition of who could
get the most colour on them as we walked
through each colour zone and high fives
were flying around between fellow runners.
It has made me wonder, what is out there
for Andre’s age group? 8-12 year olds are not
quite old enough to go to the big festivals
with the big names but if we go to the family
friendly festivals I imagine I will spend the
day hearing ‘I am bored’ or worse ‘can I have
your phone’, so where do we go? Is there a
gap in the market?
event w i f i . com
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