Dancing at the End of the Road

This is both an eclectic and genial festival. In the words of a steward I chatted to ‘the average age here is twenty-one’ and the up close and very personal camping companions around us bore testament to this statement.

In our life habits we as a family were at a polar opposite to the numerous students who rolled back to canvas city at two or three in the morning with much ‘oh shit sorry’ unzipping of wrong tents, especially ours for some reason. But there was a delicious revenge to be had on these unzipping folk, our children up at six thirty requesting to see ‘Tangled’ at the top of their lungs (yes, the festival catered to many tastes and screened films for children).

What works brilliantly for families is the division of the main site into very imaginative and family friendly areas, including ‘Wonderlands’ and the garden stage. An active and curious young soul would have probably sampled the entirety of the workshops on offer by the end of the festival: drama, song making, circus skills and the seemingly ubiquitous clay modelling and withy making. Our older daughter said that this festival ‘…was much better for children than the festival we went to last year with loads to do, a much better site and much better music’. Both children were able to get right up to the front of the both the Garden and Woods stage areas and witness some very good music. You wouldn’t bump into Mr Tumble anywhere here though and an ice cream was well over two pounds a scoop with the emphasis on local and organic.

Some youngsters may also have sampled the services of Boutique Babysitting during this festival (if organised parents had booked in advance…. we were warned), leaving adults, perhaps intoxicated with a rare sense of freedom, to slope off and subsequently secretly muse that Mark E. Smith of The Fall looks exactly like their old school janitor and just what exactly lit John Peel’s fire about this band? We didn’t book so cannot comment on their services and only one of us was left musing whilst the other babysat.

Musing on music gets us to the crux of things. I concluded that the children were at the festival as a by-product of their parents taste in music (we booked on the basis of music rather children’s activities). The festival brochure makes no secret of wanting to attract people with ‘good taste in music’ and to be part of this festival crowd with young children in tow it means trawling the internet for cutesy ear defenders/plugs and riding the crest of a really, really seriously bad chemical toilet wave.

It also means accepting at this festival that the ‘family camping’ area is not just for families, it is for literally everyone. Family camping has no extra facilities such as showers in the vicinity and is located in the field next to the main new Woods stage which means it is super noisy.  You need to be family fit because the great trolley dash from the car park is long and arduous (and expensive without your own trolley) at this festival. You also have your camping companions to fend off at two or three in the morning. This is to purely focus on the negative, however.

Choosing to come to this festival means you get to hear some great music, namely Midlake, Laura Marling and Joan as Police Woman. Your children will be entertained well but they will certainly not clean and it is essential to carry stacks of alcohol hand rub, tee tree oil and other germ bashing products and wipes.

However, judging from this year we can pretty much guarantee that you will be with a genial bunch of people who are having a good time and hopefully making it back to their own tent in the small hours….

More information
Ticket for End of the Road 2012 are now on sale at the festival website.