For those with kids coming to Kelburn Garden Party you can expect a music festival and adventure holiday rolled into one. Instead of a simple kid-safe zone that is the norm of many-a-festival across the UK, we are utterly proudly bursting with a whole spectacle of family-friendly fun throughout the weekend.
Kelburn estate is an award-winning family attraction, and festival goers get access to most of those features on top of all the extra magic we lay on for the weekend. Drive a bus, discover the Green Man’s Maze, see a comedy show, join a drum circle, learn fantastic circus tricks, tackle the rope bridge… there is even a soft play barn!
Read on for a cheeky taster of the activities and acts you and your family can catch at Kelburn.
Kids under 5 go free to the festival, and kids and youth tickets are heavily subsidised.
We also have a new quiet and family camping field and some upmarket toilet and shower facilities for those who like a bit more comfort.
The Secret Forest Project
One of the gems in Kelburn’s crown and open from 10am to 5pm daily, the Secret Forest is a surreal labyrinthine trail through the woods above the main festival site, that includes many bizarre attractions, from the Chinese gardens and Pagoda, the gingerbread house and the Greenman’s maze, to the crocodile swamp and grotto and the “inner wood”.
This year Wizarding Wonder Ermintrude Verdigo is all set to demonstrate their discovery of the most coveted of all magical craft: The Philosopher’s Stone! Provided, that is, that they can find all the ingredients…
Come and join our fantastical friend as they try to get their recipe in order. Be dazzled at the strange recipe such a feat requires and dare to enter a realm of wonder and silliness!
The Famous BlundaBus
The famous Fringe venue is back! Bob’s BlundaBus (a double decker that’s also a pop-up comedy venue) will host kids’ events this year during the day at the Kelburn Garden Party.
The Lullabies Collective
Families will find a warm welcome at the Lullabies Collective. A focal point of the family camping field, their programme puts some familiarity and rhythm into the day for younger festival goers while giving parents some down time too. Start the day with a Sing Along, enjoy a bubbly Baby bath after dinner, and finish off the day with the festival bedtime of your life – songs and stories from the Lullabies Collective!
The Lullabies Collective are artists and musicians with children of their own who love festivals and produce collaborative performing arts for children. Together they create the Lullabies Tent, an amazing sheltered environment for parents, babies and young children. Bath the kids and enjoy original songs and stories, traditional and modern lullabies, entrancing visuals, and soothing live music.
Mr Boom
A stalwart of Scottish children’s entertainment
First arriving on Planet Earth in 1984 – Mr Boom – the children’s One Man Band – still continues to arrive from the moon in The Spaceship Imagingation. A true veteran of inter galactic travel. Lots of musical fun and games for families with wee Earthlings (aged 3 to 8). “Jump, skip, dance around the sun”
“He’s doing something special, because the children love him. Hundred’s of them recognise in his gentle playful simplicity, something of themselves” …. The Scotsman
Unicorn Dance Party
You are invited to the best dance party ever!
Sparkling unicorns Melody and Luna are looking for new pals, and they’ve heard there are some unicorns in your area. So, they’re throwing the best dance party ever, with easy-to-follow dance moves and the ultimate playlist of everyone’s favourite tunes, from Katy Perry to Queen! You are invited to clap your hands, shake your tails and move and groove to some rockin’ jams!
With glittering costumes and visual pizazz, this interactive outdoor show for aspiring unicorns aged 5+ and their families will unlock the joy within us all.
Now, let’s just hope the unicorns they’re looking for turn up!
Epic Story Quest
The Epic Story Quest is an improvised story adventure where the audience chooses what happens next.
Your ideas are woven into the most amazing, exciting, jaw-dropping story imaginable by Desmond O’Connor and Zoie Kennedy, master-storytellers and passionate musicians.
Zoie and Des will be assisted in their storytelling and soundtracking by a group of children who have embarked upon the Epic Story Workshop. These children will spend an hour working with Des and Zoie, learning how to create sound effects, generate musical accompaniment and even lead the storytelling themselves.
The children of Kelburn Garden Party will be given a creative opportunity that will transform their festival experience and give them all the chance to say they have performed live in the Neverending Glen at Scotland’s most beautiful music festival.
Kidding Around
The Kidding Around crew create a space for play in the heart of the Summerfields.
Duck Race
Come to the river, grab a duck and join in the fun. Our duck racers will have you whipped up into an exciting frenzy watching your duck float down the river in the race to find out who is the quickest quacker in the Kel Burn.
Spinning Jenny’s
Stand tall on stilts, wobble wildly on a unicycle, teeter, totter and spin!
Roll up, roll up! Come and join the circus shenanigans to learn a new skill (or show off an old one) with spinning plates, giant hoola hoops, juggling, stilt walking and more…
Sun Catchers Workshop
Using recycled beads and bought crystals, sun catchers can be hung in people’s windows to create rainbows on their walls when the sun shines through them.
Sun catchers are small enough to fit in your pockets and a quality creation to take away and remember Kelburn.They are durable and will last forever.
Equally suitable for both kids and adults.
Nature Crowns
Make a cardboard crown and decorate it with leaves, flowers and other natural treasures.
Good in the Wood Forest School
“Good in The Wood” are based in the west of Scotland and have a well established Forest school working with young people age 5-16, adults and families.
They offer different hands on activities exploring themes in nature, encouraging nature connection, building confidence and having fun.
Pond Dipping
Come and discover the weird and wonderful creatures that live in the pond at Kelburn. Newts, frogs & dragonflies lurk in the waters come and join us to see what you can find. Suitable for children and adults.
Workshops & Games
Throughout the festival site you will find a great range of activities for your little ones. From a nail-biting duck race and the family hub in the Tall Trees to a Unicorn Dance Party , you can give them a proper mind-enhancing time by day before you do your best to live it up by night!
More to be announced soon…
