It’s September, the temperature has cooled, and summer feels like a thing of the past already. The summer festivals are well and truly behind us; maybe you attended, or maybe you weren’t successful in the mad scrum for tickets or you opted out of the maniacal summer crowds. Whatever the situation don’t despair, check out our carefully chosen list of family friendly events below.
Alex James presents Harvest Festival, Kingham, Oxfordshire
Friday 9th – Sunday 11th September 2011
Harvest is a celebration of food and music for friends and for families where you can feast your ears as well as your belly. Some of the UK’s most well known chefs rub shoulders with the makers of lovely music to create a jolly good time!
Small and perfectly formed, Harvest promises kids’ cooking lessons, live music, edible garden magic workshops with Alys Fowler, and everyone’s favourite brother and sister, Charlie and Lola, in their wonderful stage show. Opera Holland Park’s adaptation of Road Dahl’s classic Fantastic Mr Fox will also take to the stage and in between the shows you will be able to partake in some fantastic classes from painting a piano to conducting your own orchestra. Headline music acts include The Kooks, KT Tunstall and Fat Freddy’s Drop. Combined Friday and Saturday tickets are £15 for children and £50 for adults. Day tickets for either Saturday or Sunday range from £10.50 for a child to £45 for an adult.
Swanage Folk Festival
Friday 9th – Sunday 11th September 2011
This is a well established and family friendly folk festival on the Dorset coastline. Concerts and events are held at a variety of venues in the town centre, and Saturday night is the popular showpiece concert.
For those with the energy to dance Saturday night away, our Sandpit Field Marquee will throb to the music of our ceilidh band with Gordon Potts as the caller, whilst the Sandpit Field is also the venue for a huge variety of child-friendly activities which take place over the weekend.
Those wishing to perform themselves have opportunities at the White Horse Festival Folk Club Saturday lunchtime only, or at sessions in pubs round the town, singing at the small bar at the Red Lion with Derek Burgess & Kitty Vernon, an Irish music session at the White Swan, and English music sessions in the marquee behind the Red Lion. All sessions (apart from folk club) are Friday evening, Saturday lunch and evening, Sunday lunch time only. A season ticket costs £50, free entry for children.
Day Out With Thomas at Dartmouth Steam Railway, Paignton
Saturday 22nd – Tuesday 25th October 2011
A half term day out for families with young children and steam rail enthusiasts. Meet the Fat Controller and Sir Topham Hatt who will be in charge of Thomas and his Friends as they chuff and chunter up and down the tracks from Paignton to Kingswear stations. Fares are £14.00 for Adults / Concession £13.00, children (aged 2-15) £10.00 and a Family ticket is £43.00. For refreshments there are two cafes – The Station House Cafe at Paignton and Belle Bistro at Kingswear. All aboard! Booking in advance is recommended as this is a very popular weekend!
Carnivals all over Somerset!
Various Venues: 24 September – 14 November
Between the end of September and mid November 2011, the streets of many Somerset towns and villages are an exciting blaze of colour as the Somerset Illuminated Carnivals take place. With processions of illuminated floats, grand fireworks displays and street entertainment Somerset villages and towns are filled with a sense of fiesta and fun. Some of the floats come in at over 50 feet long and are covered in hundreds of lightbulbs. Dwarfing the streets, these magnificent creations are the results of months of hard work by the Carnival Clubs. These spectacular events can be hard to describe and you really do need to see them to believe them.
Some of the carnivals are larger than others but even in the smaller ones, the ‘walking entries’ provide entertainment and often much hilarity. The dates for the 2011 Somerset Carnivals are as follows (they usually start around 7pm and finish around 9pm):
24 Sep (Sat) 7:00pm Frome
25 Sep (Sat) 7:30pm Wellington
1 Oct (Sat) 7:15pm Ilminster
15 Oct (Sat) 7:30pm Castle Cary
8 Oct (Sat) 7:15pm Chard
15 Oct (Sat) 7:00pm Taunton
4 Nov (Fri) 7:00pm Bridgwater
5 Nov (Sat) 7:00pm North Petherton
7 Nov (Mon) 7:30pm Burnham-on-Sea / Highbridge
9 Nov (Wed) 7:30pm Shepton Mallet
10 Nov (Thu) 7:15pm Midsomer Norton
11 Nov (Fri) 7:00pm Wells
12 Nov (Sat) 7.00pm Glastonbury
14 Nov (Mon) 7:15pm Weston-super-Mare
A Victorian Festival of Christmas
Friday 25th – Sunday 27th November 2011
This is a very popular event on the Hampshire family calendar; on the first year of Christmas my true love gave to me… a Festival to make you happy! 12 years on and that is still the case as Portsmouth Historic Dockyard will once again step back in time for the magical Victorian Festival of Christmas.
Taking place this year from Friday 25th to Sunday 27th November 2011, visitors will be magically transported (not literally one would imagine!) into a Dickensian-style bygone era of beautiful snowy streets with Victorian characters and toe-tapping entertainment in Fagin’s Tavern.
Tickets cost £14.50 for adults and children (5-15 years) £13.00 Senior Citizen tickets cost £13.00 also. Ticket prices include entrance to the Historic Dockyard attractions, with lots of new features being planned for 2011. You can book your tickets in advance and benefit from early bird discounts.
Paul Harper is Business Development Manager at Hoburne Holiday Parks.
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