From Family Festival Newbie to Seasoned Pro: My Journey to The Fantbulous Family Festival Planner
Joanna Armah-Kinson 
My decade long journey to becoming a family festival pro; from the early screw ups to hard-won expertise for successful festivals with your kids.
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The Story Behind The Fantabulous Family Festival Planner
(Or, how I distilled years of trial and error into a book, so you get to have a successful family festival every time!)
I created The Fantabulous Family Festival Planner in the hope it will inspire other parents to try, and ultimately fall in love with taking their kids to festivals.
And I love blogging about festivals as you’ll know if you’ve read any of my other posts. For instance, last week’s blog post was 7 Things you Didn’t know about Taking Kids to Festivals.
So, just in case you were wondering what qualifies me to talk about them, this week, I thought I’d share a bit more about me and how I came to know so much about family festivals.
Music Festivals have been a lifelong passion of mine
Like any good 90’s Indie Kid, I loved Festivals in my Student Days.
Like many indie music fans growing up in 90s Britain, I was bitten by the festival bug early on. I was a student and festivals were a large part of the “Cool Britannia” vibe and so I spent many happy weekends in fields immersed in the magic of live music.
Little did I know those early festival experiences would plant the seed for a lifelong passion!
Festivals are even better when you go with a Family.
Years later, whilst living and working in Ghana, I met my now husband who is a performer. When we relocated to the UK, I won a contest for tickets to Camp Bestival - one of the country's most popular family festivals. We decided to take our young son along, initiating him into the festival world at the early age of 10 months.
And as it turned out we both loved it and were hooked. I set about going to as many festivals as I could, both by buying tickets and getting my husband work at them (as it turns out, his performances are a great match to festivals).
A decade later, not even a global pandemic has dampened our love of Festivals.
Over the last decade, I’ve been to tens if not hundreds of festivals. I love being able to combine my passion for festivals with my family life. And my son has been lucky enough to grow up spending most of his summers enjoying the best they have to offer.
From special “distanced” events during lockdown, to small half day events and festivals that are as big as mini cities and all week every single festival has helped teach me how to navigate the ins and outs of family festival weekends.
Come rain or shine I can now pretty much handle anything a festival throws at me!
As Veteran Family Festival Goers we’ve learnt to go with the Flow.
At first, if something could go wrong at the festival, it probably did.
We’ve had our fair share of misadventures over the years.
Our very first-time festival camping as a family, saw us setting up camp in high winds. We fought to get all our gear (and a complaining toddler) across a massive field (we hadn’t yet discovered festival trolleys) only to have our tent blow half away back to our car when we were trying to set it up. It’s surprising we persevered with family festivals at all after that!
We have many more camping stories, but over the years, some of our biggest family festival challenges have involved the things most parents worry about, like the dreaded festival toilets.
Originally my son refused to use festival loos, leading us on one particularly memorable weekend to consider driving home so he could use the toilet there. Unfortunately, this festival was a good 3 hours from home, so it wasn’t really an option, and it took some quick thinking to find ways to sort it out and get through the weekend.
Getting enough sleep is a constantly evolving conundrum.
When our son was a toddler our festival trolley was invaluable in ensuring everyone got some time to chill out. That first festival I mentioned was tough, because without a trolley, naps were only ever going to be in one place – my arms!
Festival trolleys are magic, not just for carrying stuff but as a portable napping place. Combined with ear defenders my son’s spent many happy hours sleeping through loud music sets. And I’m not going to lie, I loved making all of the cushions and decorating it too!
Eventually he got too tall and old to nap in it, so we adjusted our festival experiences to include downtime, generally at the tent, where we would chill out and either rest or had quiet play around the tent. And now as an almost teen, he just never stops!
That’s the wonderful thing with festivals, even if you’re a veteran festival goer as your kids get older, your get a new experience; Over the years we’ve mastered an arsenal of sleep and quiet time strategies.
Going with the flow is easier when you’ve got a system.
As the years have passed, and we’ve gone through these and many, many more experiences, we’ve created plans, checklists, and systems and processes to avoid making similar mistakes again and to ensure our weekends run smoothly.
These experiences are what gives me the know-how to write my blogs and are the basis of The Fantabulous Family Festival Planner.
My aim is to share these tips with you and other families, so you only have to have the positive experiences, not the negative ones!
However overwhelmed you feel right now, family festivals are always worth it.
I understand that festival goers have lots of questions and concerns about the weekend because I’ve had them all too. From wondering if you have everything you’ll need, working out how to budget so your wallet survives, to planning how to see your favourite bands whilst leaving time for the unexpected magical bits, going to a festival can feel overwhelming.
Through years of experience, I’ve learned how incredibly rewarding a good family festival can be and I love sharing the knowledge I've gained from my own family's experiences. I want to help others avoid our early mistakes and equip families to enjoy every minute of a festival like pros. Because with the right preparation, family-friendly festivals can lead to amazing memories together.
The secret is being prepared. For one weekend, you have a world of entertainment to discover on your doorstep. Knowing what to take, how to navigate it and remembering to capture the magical moments really elevates your experiences which is why I created The Fantabulous Family Festival Planner.
Memories made at festivals really are magical.
Over the years we’ve gathered memories of countless silent disco’s, tree climbs, endless fairground rides and lots of watching my fairly shy son take centre stage as his dads (and other performers) sidekick.
Plus of course, the once in a lifetime memory of watching England’s world cup semi-final on a sweltering hot day with 12,000 other slightly sweaty fans, all crammed into a festival trading corridor that really couldn’t accommodate them!
I know how special my family’s festival memories are and I want every family to have their own memories too.
You can use my experiences to avoid having your own family festival disasters
After years of trial and error, I'm ready to pay my festival expertise forward.
And so, I started The Fantabulous Family. Our first book, The Fantabulous Family Festival Planner, distils my hard-won knowledge into tips, templates, and fun ways to ensure all of your festival experiences are a success.
With this book in your back pocket, you can create amazing family memories at any music festival. Why not get your copy today and start dreaming of your next weekend in a field somewhere?
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And if you want more information about Family Festivals you can also read:
- The Complete List of UK Family Friendly Festivals in 2024
- 5 Benefits of taking your kids to a Family-Friendly Festival this Summer
- How to Choose the Best Family Festival for you: 5 Insider Tips to Help you Find one Everyone Loves
- 7 Things you Didn’t know about Taking your Kids to Festivals
(All photos used with my family's permission. As you can probably tell, I tend to be the photographer, not the photographed).
Categories: : Family Festivals
Written by Joanna Armah-Kinson (Owner, The Fantabulous Family)
Joanna is the wife of a festival performer, who is lucky enough to spend the majority of her summer weekends at festivals entertaining her (now 11-year-old) son. As a mum who juggles a part-time job and managing two businesses, she knows the importance of good planning, and the need for flexibility and good grace when plans fall through! A lifelong adventure lover, travel, photography and spending time outdoors have always been Joanna's passions.
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