ALSO Festival Review
DISCLOSURE – THIS EXPERIENCE WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST/S FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW.
Reviewed by Kat Harrison
This weekend, we experienced ALSO Festival as a Family; mum, dad and two daughters, aged 7 and 9. And along with lots of lovely memories, we’re bringing back a very positive review. ALSO is most definitely a fun, family-friendly festival and one you should certainly add to your bucket list!
Set in a stunning landscape in the heart of Warwickshire, ALSO is an award-winning festival ‘where ideas run wild.’ Small but perfectly formed, it’s more laid back, more chilled than other festivals we’ve been to, yet has plenty of exciting activities to be enjoyed, no matter your age.
Every year we head off to a festival as a family and I’m always on the lookout for programmes that will entertain us all. Whilst at first glance ALSO appeared to be largely aimed at adults, delving a little deeper I realised there was plenty going on for the younger members of our crew. Nevertheless, I wasn’t sure how the thought-provoking talks, delicious-sounding long table dinners and masterclasses aimed at grown-ups would sit alongside the children’s activities. An investigation was in order. Had I not been offered the opportunity to attend, I may well have dismissed ALSO as an option for us, so I want other families to know, it’s 100% one for their to-do list.
Ahead of our visit, I ran through the schedule on the ALSO website which handily highlights the best experiences for children and families (though they can be a little hidden amongst everything else) and created a base itinerary. We certainly didn’t exhaust the numerous things available to us with two young children.
Our personal top ten experiences of the weekend were :
- Building our own raft and then sailing it out onto the lake (with a background of stories and a singalong from Mama G Panto Dame)
- Laughing our socks off at the interactive and wild ‘Game Show for Awful Children’ hosted by acclaimed French comedian, Marcel Lucont, in which toilet humour is key and you may even get to see your kids up on stage battling to make the best fart noise!
- Taking part in Solar System themed workshops including using stencils to create designs onto t-shirts and painting sky at night scenes onto canvas
- Making lanterns to walk with in Saturday night’s parade
- Using a special detector to find bats in the forest on a guided Bat Walk
- Sharing crazy ideas at the Knights and Wizards Comic Workshop with Children’s Author and Illustrator the Brothers McLeod, to create a story where the girls saw their notions of Banana Land and Sir Chopsticks riding a Polar Bear come to life through drawings
- Watching kids perform in the ‘Also All Stars Talent Show’ and experiencing some real heartwarming moments
- Building and launching our own plastic bottle water rockets, as well making space stations out of cardboard
- Enjoying the beautiful lake, including taking a dip, as well as walking around the beautiful grounds and building dens in the forest
- All the random activities to join in with including plate spinning at the circus school, entering the space hopper championship and attempting the mini-golf course
We had an amazing family weekend and give ALSO a big thumbs up for anyone with kids. Equally, I’d recommend it to adults looking for something a little different. Had it just been me and the husband, I wouldn’t have hesitated to head to Laughter Yoga, experience a Sound Bath, enjoy a guided wild swim, listen to a talk about Aceing Friendship and be introduced to the art of samba drumming. And as for dining experiences, the Craft Beer and Cheese Pairing, Oyster tasting and Bingo Brunch would have topped my tastebud to do list.
We’d love to go to ALSO again and perhaps a great way to do it, so everyone gets to experience more, is to go with another family and for everyone to pick and choose what they’d most like to do, each curating their own adventure, with the benefit of babysitters when the adults want to adult. I had read there is a Nannying Service but this wasn’t for us.
The weather held out and it was lovely, there were times when we just got to sit down and enjoy some live music in a stunning setting. We even got to hear an interesting talk from David Tong about planets beyond our solar system, whilst the girls tucked into delicious pizzas from Pat’s Wood Fired Pizza, and ice-cream from Napton Water Buffalo. The food on offer was slightly more limited than other festivals we’ve been to, but we had packed a few picnic essentials, and we did enjoy dishes from the Winkle Picker and Pina Coladas from the Cocktail Trailer. The ‘arrival of the pastries’ was definitely a highlight for us breakfast fans who were ready at the Bar at 8am Saturday morning when a fantastic selection of both savoury and sweet sensations went on sale!
One of the joys of the campsite compared to other festivals is that you can park your car next to your tent; no traipsing back and forth to set up all your stuff. The Portaloo’s were kept clean, the bins regularly emptied and all in all it felt a very friendly, easily navigable, safe environment. The girls were made up when the lady sat next to us offered to paint their faces with glitter!
The pricing of ALSO tickets is in line with other festivals we’ve been too, with early bird offers certainly worth investing in. If you buy closer to the event a family of four like us would have gone for £370, with a car parking ticket priced at £45. If you’re into festivalling, you’ll know this is about what to expect. At ALSO, there are quite a few optional extras that if you fancy them, do have to be booked and paid for separately and in advance. These include some of the workshops (both adults and children) and the dining experiences. My tip would be to go for it and book early and use the money you save to reserve spaces on a couple of each. You would certainly enjoy the weekend without the extras but for us, the raft-building and t-shirt painting which were payable, did enhance our experience.
Overall, ALSO is a slightly eccentric, off beat, yet playful festival for everyone. I feel we only experienced a small slice but a tasty one it was! Get booking for 2025.
Rating: 4.5/5
To find out more, head to https://www.also-festival.com
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