Festival Survival Guide for Parents with Children

Kids love music festivals, and nowadays, there is often as much for the wee ones to do as for the grown ups. With a bit of preparation and patience, you can feel free to take the whole family to the festival!

Festival goer Libby Wilkinson has these tips for surviving a festival with children. Preparation is key – Prior to the festival we took a camping trip to get an idea of what it might be like in a possibly cold and wet field with a baby. If you get the chance, pitch the tent and spend the night. You’ll get a taste of what’s to come and if all goes well, you might find yourself registering for next year’s Glastonbury festival. Plan ahead – Make a list of everything you’ll need, you don’t want to find out you’ve forgotten the rain cover half way to your destination. Safety first - A first aid kit complete with hand sanitizer is essential. As is a torch and flask for preparing bottles and changing nappies in the middle of the night. Do some research – Some festivals are more geared toward families than others. Have a look around, check out the site maps and figure out if you’ll have a long way to carry all your gear and whether or not it’d be worth staying in accommodation near-by. Foodies – If you’re bottle feeding take sterilisation tablets to hygienically clean feeding equipment. Breast feeding? First aid tents are great places to discreetly express. Also, festival food can be expensive and in some instances might be too exotic for little pallets, so ensure you have plenty of jars and finger foods to keep tummies happy throughout the day. Safety first – Most festivals issue security tags for you to write your number on, stick a couple on your children in case they wander off, or write it on their wristbands of course. Festival must-haves – Ear defenders -If you want to get a bit closer to the stage a pair of giant headphones is a baby’s best festival accessory. They’re not only practical, but adorable too. Secondly -Fairy lights. Wrapping a string of solar operated twinkly lights around the pram makes you visible during the night and you’re therefore less likely to get trampled on by drunken revellers. It also turns your baby’s transport into a space-age disco buggy, certain to turn heads!