Greenman Festival

Our destination this past weekend was the Greenman Festival in Wales. We made a plan ages ago to meet Alan, Carol, Evangeline and Lara there and it was great to see them all again. It's such a pity when nice people move away. Nicholas and Evangeline hit it off right from the start. It was as though they'd seen each other just the other day. As usual the festival was wet and muddy. The kids weren't too bothered by the rain and they had an absolute ball stamping about in the mud. Luckily we all had wellies.

No festival would be complete without a bit of bubble mania for the younger crowd. Whereever we went there seemed to be kids blowing bubbles and the bubble magic tent was a strong bargaining tool. It created a real magical mood. From now on I'm not going anywhere without some little bubble blowers for improntu entertainment.

Daniel was very popular little guy indeed. I lost track of how many people oogled and aahhed and pointed and smiled and commented how cute he is. At first I thought it was his little wellies but when I look at these photos I realise that he definitely is one of the most adorable little boys on the planet. There is no wonder he charmed everyone.

The kids field was packed with fun for the little ones. The big circus tents provided a perfect spot to escape the rain but some liked it because it gave them a chance catch 40 winks. The main tent had different activities on every hour like hoola hoops, bicycle powered racing cars, pottery workshops, spin painting and grass weaving just to mention a few. The music tent had drumming sessions and jamming sessions with real instruments as well as singing, poetry, story telling and drama workshops. The arts and crafts tent was jam packed with all kinds of recycling material for making anything and everything under the sun. There was also a reading corner and a soft play centre and various rides and outdoor entertainment as well.

Festivals are great because they give everyday people a chance to behave strangely. Nicholas and Daniel thought the green man with the purple balloons very weird indeed. I thought the look on their faces after they took the balloons and retreated to watch him from a safe distance was classic.
When the rain stopped we had a great time walking around listening to music and soaking up the festive atmosphere. The highlight on the music front was definitely Billy Bragg but we also got to sample some bands unknown to us which were pretty good. I love the fact that both our boys enjoy music as much as their dad does.
Einstein's Garden was our favourite field. Besides a small gazebo stage for one man bands and a speakers corner it was decorated with colourful flags and had loads of interesting things for the whole family to explore. In one section there were all kinds of things carved out of wood with a bearded guy giving demos, there was the discover sound tent and the cooking experiment tent but Nicholas' favourite by far was the molecule tent but only until he discovered the building sticks and bricks on a persian carpet in the middle of nowhere. We could have spent all day pottering around there.

On Sunday Nicholas also helped a bunch of hippies make a fire out of kindling on which they cooked some popcorn. Other than that we just lazed about in the sunshine listening to some more music and doing a bit of bopping. Then sadly it was time to pack up and go home. A summer without a festival in the UK will just not be complete for this little family.