Bounce Festival 2013
Reviewed by Jane Hopkins
Billed as “The action packed family day out” I was, after returning from a superb 4 day family friendly festival just days before, doubting this claim. However we loved it so much we went both days and still didn’t manage to do everything.
The first thing that greeted us was the main stage, hosted by the fabulous Anna Williamson from many kids TV programmes, who presented a day long schedule of events from kids comedians, nutty co-presenters, competitions and superb musical acts. Some for kids and some for us older kids too.
Activities were split into zones around the park, with either cordoned off areas or tents. They ranged from a cycling circuit with tons of unusual bikes to try, the daredevil science tent with the amazing “Kaboom” fireworks and bangs show, the ‘put your brave hat on’ no limits Assault course and the England Rugby experience where kids could pretend to be rugby players all day. My son loved this and spent far too long here! We met creepy creatures such as meercats and skunks, got to hold giant millipede’s and stroke grumpy hedgehogs and spiders… yuk. There was sheep shearing, cookery, street dancing, beat boxing, cake decorating, loads of craft activities and my own personal favourites that no festival is complete without – the random street entertainers! We had a nutty pair of women dressing the kids with socks for gloves and gloves for socks, the kids were in stitches laughing, and the amazing balloon modeller who made us a fabulous dinosaur which I was *delighted* to carry for the rest of the day… you name it they packed in a huge amount of fun into Old Deer Park.
Toilets, well what can I say – they are definitely number one in my experience of festivals. Clean, stocked and plenty are the only things I want from festival loos and they didn’t disappoint.
Food was fabulous, a great selection and reasonably priced.
After the weekend, my 8 year old son was filthy from all the activities but as I always say, ‘a dirty child is a happy child’ and he was indeed delighted. We loved Bounce and thoroughly recommend it, both for locals in and around London and for visitors further afield. We travelled 2 hours to get there and stayed over in a local hotel, it was well worth it for the two days. Next year I’d quite like to try the camping experience.
Rating: 5/5 
For more information visit www.bouncefestival.co.uk
