We arrived back late last night from our holiday: our return flight was very delayed and Freddie didn’t get to bed until nearly midnight. As I sieved through the two and a half weeks’ worth of post I was delighted when I opened our guest passes for Lollibop…….but would Freddie last the day… You can bet he did! He loved every minute of it, I had to drag him away when it finished!
What is Lollibop?
Dubbed by its creators as ‘Glastonbury for kids’ Lollibop is a festival for children under 10 and their families, and it’s jam packed with kids activities and shows.
This year the Lollibop festival headed to Hatfield House in Hertfordshire (it is usually held in London), one of our favourite places to visit especially ‘Bloody Hollow’ but that’s another story! There are Lollibop Zones: Lollibop Live, hosted by Cbeebies Alex Winters, Lollipalladium, Lollibooks, Active Zone, The Meadows, Join in with Southbank, The Discovery Zone and Meet and Greet.
Alex Winters of Cbeebies doing the Hokey Cokey!
Looking at the programme for 2014 the children’s entertainment seemed endless, and it was! With lots of shows featuring Cbeebies favourites, Mister Maker, Justin, Mr Bloom, Lazy Town, Andy Day and more plus favourites from CBBC including Horrible Histories.
When we arrived there was something happening on the main stage (we quickly found out that there was nearly always something going on here!), ‘It’s the real Mister Maker, mummy!’ squealed one child and then the fun began.
We actually could have spent two days here as we missed a few things that we would have loved to see or taken part in, the day was fun packed until the end. Here are some of our highlights…
Andy Day was his usual energetic self, visiting his past by re-creating his bedroom and showing the audience some of the things he loved when he was a kid. There are lots of chances for audience participation and the kids loved it. My funniest part was when a couple of dads were invited on to the stage and had to stomp and roar as dinosaurs, Andy makes these moves look cool, sorry dads yours just looked extremely funny!
Andy Day’s Show
There are lots of opportunities to meet a variety of characters and have pictures taken with them from Dennis the Menace to Fireman Sam, Chris and Pui to Poppy Cat! Freddie was very excited to meet a Horrible Histories character as we had just returned from a holiday with friends whose son is absolutely addicted to Horrible Histories and he couldn’t wait to get a picture taken with him to send back.
Freddie with cast member of Horrible Histories – For you Alex, Ruby and James!
The festival layout is great with loads of space for picnics, if it doesn’t rain!
There are lots of opportunities to dance and sing, get creative or just listen to some great stories. Everything is free (apart from food and drink) including face painting – even for us adults and T-shirt making.
For the older kids there is the football area managed by the Tottenham Hotspur FC Global Coaching team (another of Freddie’s favourites)
And the Skylander Arena where you will get a sneak preview into the new, not yet released, Skylander game.
One of my favourites was the Southbank Centres children’s program with lots of activities to keep any child (and adult) entertained from Big Sing Workshops and Hip Hop Dance with Zoo Nation to a
Pirate School and more!
It’s so hard to cover everything in a short blog, so why not visit yourself? There really is something for everyone…
Lollibop runs from 15th – 17th August 2014 at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire from 10-6 – it’s a fabulous family day out.
Website: www.lollibopfestival.co.uk
Thank you for a fab day Lollibop! xxx
