Before the Summer I wasn’t aware that many family friendly festivals existed – I grew up going to Download Festival and having to weave my way through the drunk, mosh-pit raving people and there is no way I’d take Ellie. Last year we enjoyed the family festival scene so much I’ve been looking into what else we can get planned in this year.
For me, the headliners aren’t always the best part, festivals are more about experiencing things we wouldn’t have done before, enjoying new food and being able to surround ourselves with beautiful scenery as I’ve found most festivals take place in stunning grounds.
I’ve found some great ones and included some we’ve been to in the past. All the festivals linked below are in or very close to the Midlands.
Camp Bestival Shropshire
With live music from Primal Scream, Rudimental, The Human League and Sam Ryder and entertainment from Mr Tumble, Dick and Dom, Mister Maker and Horrible Histories Camp Bestival has something for the whole family to enjoy. Last year was the first event in this area and is the sister event to Camp Bestival Dorset and we enjoyed three days of sunshine, food, live music and more fun than we could have imagined.
Date – 17th-20th August 2023
Location – Weston Park, Shropshire
Tickets – Weekend Camping – Adults: £180 13-17: £137.50 10-12: £112.50 5-9: £92.50 2-4: £72.50 (Day tickets haven’t been announced at time of posting)
Let’s Rock – Shrewsbury
Lets Rock is known as the Retro Festival with a line up of artists bringing the very best of the 80’s with Soft Cell, The Boomtown Rats and T’Pau just being a few of the headlining acts ready to rock. There’s entertainment for the whole family to enjoy too!
Date – 15th July 2023
Location – The Quarry, Shrewsbury
Tickets – Child: £15.00 Adult: £59.00 VIP £150.00
Camp Severn Kids Festival
A whole weekend of family fun all tailored around kids. This festival brings Little Mix tribute band, a foam party, stunt teams, singing princesses, dinosaur shows and the Wild West plus so much more and whats even better is that all activities are included in the ticket price too.
Date – 28th April – 1st May 2023
Location – West Mids Showground, Shrewsbury
Tickets – Adult Camping: £73.00 Child Camping: £78.00 Adult & Under 3 Camping: £73.00
Shrewsbury Food Festival
Shrewsbury Food Festival has over 180 amazing food, drink and craft stalls, cookery demos, classes and 2 stages of live music! For the kids there’s also kids cookery, animals and so much more. It’s a great festival for trying new foods and supporting local food and drink producers too!
Date – 24th – 25th June 2023
Location – The Quarry, Shrewsbury
Tickets – On the gate – Adults: £17.50 Child: £10.00 Family: £45.00
Hoo-Fest
Hoo Fest is back after having a few years off and it’s an exciting day of fun for the whole family taking place at Hoo Zoo & Dinosaur World. Hoo Fest is more like a Comic-Con with the addition of real animals and larger than life dinosaurs too! This years event has Jurassic Park cars, roaming dinos and lots more activities as well as having a well known Star Wars actor too! There’s lots more to be announced too.
Date – 29th April 2023
Location – Hoo Zoo & Dinosaur World, Telford
Tickets – Adult: £20.95 Child: £19.95
The Kids Festival
The Kids Festival is aimed specifically towards children aged 1-12. The activities are included within the ticket price and it’s a fun filled, action packed day (INDOORS!) There are lots of opportunties for kids to get stuck in with circus skills, dance workshops, messy play, bouncy castles and princess parties. It’s going to be a great day that kids will remember for a very long time.
Date – 12th March 2023
Location – Staffordshire County Showground, Staffordshire
Tickets – On the door – Adults: £20 Child (1-11): £25 Family: £80-£95
Shrewsbury Folk Festival
This is a festival that brings two festivals to one space –
Pandemonium! festival is for children from birth to age 11 and it involves music, dance, crafts, drama, storytelling and so much more.
Refolkus is the perfect space for ages 11-20 to get creative whether this is through dance, music or something else entirely.
This festival brings the best in folk, roots, Americana and world music beside the river.
Date – 25th – 28th August 2023
Location – West Midlands County Showground, Shrewsbury
Tickets – Prices vary, day tickets and weekend camping can be purchased
Trentham Live
Trentham Live returns for 2023 with four amazing shows with an incredible line up. Set in the beautiful 725 acre estate of Trentham Gardens. Currently the acts announced are Kaiser Chiefs (supported by Razorlight) and Olly Murs (supported by Natalie Imbruglia) with acts to be annouced for the other 2 dates soon.
Date – 17th-20th August 2023
Location – Trentham Gardens, Staffordshire
Tickets – Prices vary, day tickets and weekend camping can be purchased
Alderfest
Another new festival that first came to Shropshire last year is Alderfest – a family orientated fun filled day with live music and activities. Headliners this year is Mcfly who is supported by Sam Ryder and Aston Merrygold – it’s a lineup that you wouldnt want to miss. Alderford is well known locally for its lake, it’s views and the water activities you can take part in (these have additional fees when booking).
Date – 1st July 2023
Location – Alderford, Whitchurch
Tickets – Day tickets – Adult: £85 Child: £55 (options to add on activities at booking)
Are you planning on attending any of these events this year? Or do you have others we’ve missed?
Let us know in the comments.
Mothering A Rainbow 
I’d definitely be keen to go to a food festival! What a great list of festivals for the whole family 🙂
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We are very excited to see the food festival too!!
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There are a lot of great family-friendly festivals happening! I would especially love to go to the Shrewsbury Food Festival and I imagine my daughter would love The Kids Festival!
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