Lollibop: larging it kiddie stylee. How much is too much?

As I get older, going to a festival has lost a lot of its appeal. I find them just a bit too much. Too big, too noisy, too crowded, too full of wankers. I went to Glastonbury with Tom for our honeymoon six years ago, and it was too wet, too much like hard work. This is not an age thing. Maybe it’s just me. Plenty of people seem to go back for more year after year.

This year Tom took me to some festival or other at the Olympic Park. The tickets had been expensive, and he’d had to sit on the phone for ages to buy them. It was a bunch of hip hop, which is not my genre of choice, but I can twerk with the next girl, so I kinda agreed to go, without thinking much about it. Then we had to decide what to do with the kids. In the end, my friend Sam offered to take them, which is quite an ask for a chap on his weekend.

We went, and Tom had prepared vodka cokes for the journey there, which involved circumventing Stratford by bus and then Westfield and then going on a three mile trek through what was essentially still an Olympic building site on what was the hottest day of the year on a hour-and-a-half journey that, as the crow flies, should have taken us ten minutes to walk. I arrived tipsy. Within half an hour, I was overheating. I was dusty. I just wasn’t having a good time. I wanted to go home and put my feet up. Maybe it is my age, but I suspect, actually it is just me.

Tom and I bickered all the way home, where I hung out and drank tea with Sam and Tom went off the the Clapton Heart and returned sozzled at 4 am. I don’t really blame him.

It’s not just me who finds festivals a bit overstimulating. For many kids too, going to a big party or event can be quite a stressful experience, especially for those on the Autism spectrum. I’ve always found Jonah pretty amenable when he’s out and about. it’s at home, where he feels safe, that he likes to really go for it on the tantrum front. But nonetheless, keen for Jonah to enjoy the same experiences as his peers, we make sure he gets a taste of whatever is normal for kids his age. This can have mixed results, but he’s fine as pie with cinema, bowling, leisure centers, parks and playgrounds.

Festivals for kids are a relatively new invention, a spin off from the festival explosion of the last decade, and they don’t come cheap. A family ticket to Lollibop, taking place this year, somewhat ironically at the Olympic Park, costs in the region of £100.00 if you didn’t take advantage of the much more reasonable early bird deals, and promises “to delight mini festival goers” with the like of Justin Fletcher – AKA Mr Tumble, Rastamouse and Hello Kitty, and erm… Dick and Dom.

It sounds like a whole bucketful of entertainment for little ones, but how much fun can kids under 10 can really handle? Quite a lot, it seems, judging by the event’s website which says “you won’t believe just how much there is to enjoy and experience in one place.” It sounds like one big meltdown waiting to happen. Particularly if  previous experiences at “amusement ” parks are anything to go by – see The Unfair.

However, if done well, I reckon we can all have a lovely time. It just means a but of prep in advance, a good night’s sleep and a bag full of snacks.

We have already been to one Lollibop, and it was a pleasant experience, akin to a very well organised fete, with much better attractions. The year we went, we won tickets through a comp with Families East, a local listings mag, and the free day out, which involved being read stories in the belly of a pretend whale, watching a realistic polar bear talk to the children, dressing up in costumes and playing games. I remember Jonah, then threeish, rather nonplussed by the general colour and liveliness of it all, but having fun eating ice creams and bouncing along to the general mayhem and noise. Ava, 18 months, all gummy dribble and curly head fluff, had a whale of a time. I suspect that next week’s jaunt will be much the same. But it’s important for kids, whatever their personalities, temperaments and challenges to be exposed to all kinds of cultural events, and if festivals for kids is the thing for this generation, than they should be able to experience it – it’s good for them to learn to handle this kind of event – just make sure they get some time to chill out in between the excitement. It’s a shame the price tag is so prohibitive, but at least this ensures that those who are lucky enough to go, will get a jolly good show – if not the tantrum odd tantrum during the course of the day.

Click here for some tips on  taking your ASD child on a ‘big day out’ http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/autism_spectrum_disorder_parties.html