Were you at Lollibop Children’s Festival? Add your review!

My kids first festival experience probably set a fair picture of how festivals will be for the rest of their existence– standing in a muddy field in the rain, feeling cold & damp but generally really having quite a good time.

We (me, 2 4 year olds, 2 2 yr olds and my friends’ husband) arrived early when Regents Park was still bathed in glorious sunshine.  The girls immediately headed for the fairy and wizard school pink tent, and we started the day with some pretty in pink crafts with some lovely ladies in fairy outfits.  The girls loved it & thought they had gone to heaven as they made headbands and bracelets – I wondered how the fairies would ever be able to make such things quickly enough if there were more than 4 people at their school?

Next up, Charlie and Lola’s Best Bestest Play; a 2D puppetry version of the books/TV show – the kids were totally engrossed for the whole 40min show and happily sat still (ish) and munched their way through sandwiches and carrot sticks.

We wandered out, and met up with giant, furry Peppa & George Pig who were out meeting and greeting their tiny fans.  My 2 year old had a whole conversation with George Pig and told him how she slept on the bottom bunk just like him with her sister up on top, on her “peppa bed” – adorable.

As the clouds darkened, we caught the last part of the RastaMouse set on the main stage; we all had a dance but mainly tried to alternate holding a small child on shoulders so they could see (nightmarishly hard work for 5ft2” me).

Luckily for me, the set changed to some Country & Western music & the kids just wanted to run around and dance free style (“no, I am not following the lady, mummy”) for a while.

Clever hubbie at this point decided we should head for the arts and craft covered tent as the skies looked more and more ominous, and we settled in to bead bracelet making and paper plate painting, while the heavens opened outside.  There really shouldn’t be torrential rain in August, it just isn’t fair – but it rained more than cats and dogs.

We eventually ventured out into the mid-afternoon drizzle and muddy puddles (sadly, Peppa & George were not rolling in them though) and went to see the ZingZillas.  All of the kids had really wanted to see them but by this time, 2 of the kids had crashed out, my 2 year old refused to get out from under the rain cover, and I could only manage another short stint of a 4 year old on my shoulders with muddy feet all over me, before deciding to call it a day.

Even though we missed out on loads of great stuff, they were all happy (except when the gale force winds ripped pink horse balloon from wrist of 4 yr old – you can imagine the reaction) so I was happy too.  Clearly, would have been so much better on a sunny day.  Would I go again, yes definitely, but may wait a few more years until they are slightly older, less liable to flake out mid afternoon and do more of the activities on offer.   What was their favourite thing?  “Everything, mummy – oh and the jumping kangaroos”, now they really were quite cool.

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