The best family festivals to book for summer 2024
Festival season brings fun and magic, providing experiences that families will be hard pushed to find elsewhere. In today’s cost-of-living crisis, however, ticket prices are harder to justify, so most festivals are working harder than ever to show they offer value for money.
Camp Bestival, for example, has consulted parents and introduced genuinely helpful innovations this year, such as a pledge by all food vans to offer a £6 kids’ portion on their menu. Then there is the Camp Kids Extra Pass, which costs £39.99 but includes a bag with a water bottle, six food tokens, three tokens for sweet treats and access to unlimited fruit and filtered water throughout the festival.
Other events are adding value by making all their kids’ activities free. Bearded Theory is unusual, as attendees can take their own food and drink into the arena, while Deer Shed is aiming to secure a £5 festival-wide pint.
Festivals can also expand their appeal by being truly multigenerational. “We get a lot of people bringing their grandparents,” says Rob da Bank, DJ and co-founder of Camp Bestival. “Everything is aimed at all ages; I can’t think of anything that a grandparent wouldn’t want to do.”
Here’s how family members young and old can immerse themselves in art and music at one of 15 easygoing festivals this summer. All ticket prices include camping.
Bearded Theory, Derbyshire
May 23-26
Celebrating its 15th edition with a wide-ranging line-up that includes both legends (with Jane’s Addiction, Dinosaur Jr and The Orb) and up-and-comers (Jane Weaver, English Teacher, Divorce and more), Bearded Theory is held in the grounds of Catton Hall. The Earth area is for healing and sustainable crafting, while children who spend Friday in camp can enrol in the festival’s own school. Lessons over? Enjoy games, workshops, a talent show and the brand new electronic music tent.
Adult weekend: £220 (12-16 £85, child £59), beardedtheory.co.uk
Shindig, Somerset
May 23–26
Shindig turns 10 this summer. This will be the last edition at the Dillington Estate, a honey-stone, 16th-century house near Taunton. In the Kids Kingdom, craftspeople share their skills alongside performances and kids’ films in the cinema until 10pm. This year’s dressing-up theme is ‘magical creatures’ and scrap-metal sculptures add an otherworldly feel. Expect sets from Groove Armada, house, jungle and breaks DJs; comedy from Reginald D Hunter; and a soulful tent curated by festival favourites Chai Wallahs.
Adult weekend: £185 (teens £95, child £25), shindigfestival.co.uk
Elderflower Fields, Sussex
May 24-27
Putting younger children at the forefront of festival programming, Elderflower Fields creates a world of wonder in the Ashdown Forest. The festival is small and unthreatening, attracting around 5,000 people. Many families return each year. The nurturing activities cover art, science and sports, plus there is folk, world and dance music to suit the whole family. A woodland spa offers guilt-free adult time and there is a communal, locally-sourced picnic too.
Adult weekend: £176 (child £91), elderflowerfields.co.uk
The Great Estate, Cornwall
May 31-June 2
The vibe here is one of a madcap stately home, but forget Saltburn: this is good, clean fun (with a side of burlesque and contortionism). The main stage hosts a few well-known music and comedy acts, or you can pull up a deck chair at another stage in the gin garden. Fairground rides at last year’s event included a ghost train, while families can join craft and circus workshops, a safari hunt or an egg-and-spoon race as part of a Victorian sports day.
Adult weekend: £100 (child £33), greatestatefestival.co.uk
Womad, Wiltshire
July 25-28
Expertly curating a mix of global sounds, Womad’s musical tableaux is a pick ’n’ mix like no other. The festival’s laidback, inclusive atmosphere is rarely beaten. The World of Children is a huge space for young ones to discover crafting, storytelling and circus skills, to try musical instruments and play with giant puppets, or to scale a climbing wall. Families who love a dance can expect storming sets this year from Young Fathers, Gogol Bordello and Sampa the Great.
Adult weekend: £210 (teen £100, under-13 free), womad.co.uk
Latitude, Suffolk
July 25-28
Comedy is king at Latitude and 2024’s strong female line-up includes Jo Brand, Sara Pascoe and Joanne McNally. The festival’s theatre and poetry performances are a rare treat too. All the fun plays out beside a lake, which is a dreamy setting for boating, swimming and nightly light shows. Expect Aardman Animations, a T-Rex, fossil dig and conservation-themed crafts in the family arena, cutting-edge workshops for teens and late-night DJs up in the woods. Headliners this year include Kasabian, London Grammar and Duran Duran.
Adult weekend: £308 (teen £180, child £28), latitudefestival.com
Starry Village, Herefordshire
July 25-28
From the team behind the hugely popular Shambala, Starry Skies has evolved into Starry Village, a colourful, homespun event designed just for families. Billed as an intimate family camping event, this is more like an imaginative, outdoorsy retreat than a festival, though live music plays a big part. Sea shanties, Malawian tunes, hand-crafted adventure playgrounds, DJ workshops, a giant water slide, sauna and fancy dress all feature in this first edition.
Adult weekend: £218 (child £60), starryvillage.com
Camp Bestival
July 25-28 Dorset
Aug 15-18 Shropshire
Camp Bestival attracts 50,000 people between its two sites, one not far from Lulworth Castle and the other at Weston Park in Shropshire. There is so much planned for kids that the new explorer’s pass should help this year, with ‘navigators’ on hand to explain what’s on. Workshops include bushcraft survival skills, fun with fashion and textiles, guided nature runs, silly science challenges and creative colouring. Orbital, McFly, Say She She and Hak Baker are among the mixed bag playing. Children will be entertained by Dick and Dom and the cat-suited Junior Jungle, among others.
Adult weekend: £210 (child £85), campbestival.net
Deer Shed, North Yorkshire
July 26-29
Aspiring astronauts will enjoy this family-run, independent festival. The science tent is being organised by Kielder Observatory this year and space-themed workshops will be led by astronomers. Other workshops cover art, crafts and sports. There is also a play zone where children can create with wood and a straw play area, the Feral Farm. Complementing a programme of comedy and spoken word, the music focus is trop-draw indie, with BC Camplight, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Coral set to perform.
Adult weekend: £188 (child £52.50-£105), deershedfestival.com
Wilderness, Oxfordshire
Aug 1-4
Children put on fur coats and cowboy boots to tell a joke each from a small stage in Wilderness’s family area last year. The simple activity emboldened them to overcome shyness and was organised by the excellent Flying Seagulls charity, who take comedy and circus to children in desperate circumstances around the world. They entertain families at Wilderness just beside the main stage, so it’s easy to pop off for a dance. Look out for crafting and storytelling too. Parents can dip into the books and conversation tent, the woodland spa, then later pull shapes beneath lasers in the valley. Michael Kiwanuka, Faithless and Bicep appear.
Adult weekend: £278 (teen £140.50, child £45), wildernessfestival.com
We Out Here, Dorset
Aug 15-18
A blissed-out soundtrack of dance, jazz and soul reigns at this Gilles Peterson-curated spectacular, which is popular with young adults but also welcomes families. Family camping was a fair traipse from the arena last year but the children’s area had lots going on, including Disco Shed DJs who vow never to play Baby Shark. Highlights included skateboarding lessons and interactive theatre about bees. An abundance of grassy areas makes it easy to spread out and there’s a lake for wild swimming. This summer, André 3000, Sampha and Kae Tempest perform.
Adult weekend: £259 (child under 14 free), weoutherefestival.com
Just So, Cheshire
Aug 16-18
There’s a no-nag guarantee at Just So, with all on-site activities included in the ticket price, which has been frozen at 2023 levels. This festival is aimed squarely at younger families and it might be its most creative year yet, with two new areas coming. One is the nonsense land of Bumbly Boo, with workshops in gobbledegook, hill rolling and silly dance; the other is The Harbour of Spells, where mermaids inhabit the lake shore as part of an immersive theatre experience. The annual highlight is the Carnival of the Animals, which gives families a chance to dress up and win golden pebbles as part of a festival-wide tournament.
Adult weekend: £209 (child £75), justsofestival.org.uk
The Big Feastival, Cotswolds
Aug 23-25
Blending a food festival with a lively knees-up, quality food and drink producers set up alongside the main stage and big top at Alex James’s farm. Children can expect an impressive line-up of television stars this summer, from Justin Fletcher to Bluey and Bingo. Parents, meanwhile, can enjoy old and new acts from Ministry of Sound Classical to Johnny Marr, Ash and CMAT. The variety of drinks options, from champagne to local cider and pink gin, is a highlight, as are cookery demonstrations from chefs such as Raymond Blanc, Andi and Miquita Oliver and Max La Manna.
Adult weekend: £199 (teen £120, child £52), thebigfeastival.com
Victorious, Hampshire
Aug 23-25
Victorious is different in that it is the UK’s biggest metropolitan family-friendly festival. Set on Southsea Common, in Portsmouth, it offers views of boats passing along the Solent from the Seaside Stage, which returns this year. Everything in the Kids Arena – from face painting to crafts, obstacle courses, meet-and-greets and sport workshops – is free to ticket-holders. Big name comics and bands are due on the waterfront in 2024, with turns from Al Murray, Frankie Boyle and Russell Howard, and music by Pixies, Biffy Clyro, the Sugababes and Fatboy Slim.
Adult weekend: £227 (child under 12 £27), victoriousfestival.co.uk
End of the Road, Dorset
Aug 29-Sep 1
Little children loved a giant marble run through the woods in Larmer Tree’s Victorian pleasure gardens last year. Among the trees each year are art installations and games that appeal to families seeking shaded play between bands on the main stage or in the pretty walled garden. Crafting and circus skills practice takes place on a lawn surrounded by hedges where roaming peacocks often appear. The music is always a cut above, this year featuring Idles, Fever Ray, Yo La Tengo and Casisdead, among others.
Adult weekend: £270 (teen £191, child £85), endoftheroadfestival.com
