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These are both great festivals, with excellent bands playing, a chilled out vibe and they are family friendly.
My tip for festivals is very very simple... Baked beans and Beanfeast! One of the big costs at festivals after admission and booze is the food. One way you can save money in these credit crunch times is to bring along at least some of your own... its not practical to bring it all. Baked beans are a staple: nutritious, cheap, easy to heat... even edible cold! Beanfeast is great, bit of that and pasta and some nice bread = dinner for four for about a fiver which is hideously cheap. And tasty!
Pack it before you leave home... available in most supermarkets and some health food stores.
Festivals in London have been cropping up more frequently in recent years. Mostly they're one-dayers, like the O2 shows; or events that run in a series of venues on back to back days, like the Stag and Dagger festival or the Camden Crawl. In a sense these aren't really festivals, more a string of back to back gigs in a typically uptight London gig going atmosphere.
The upside of London festivals is how little it will cost you to get about if you're in and about London. That benefit is massively outweighed by watered down, over-priced festival beer.
My favourite London festival is set away from the centre of town, near Hainault Forest. It's a two-dayer, with super-early bird tickets coming in at £35 (and sadly sold out) and early bird tickets going for £45. The line up this year is pretty solid. A Certain Ratio and The Slits playing amid a veritable horde of young talent, and the vibe of the festival is much more laid back than you get in the centre of town. Being out somewhere green and connecting with nature overnight does tend to chill people out, comparing favourably to being stuck in a grimy, too familiar city setting, wondering if you'll get in to see the band that everyone wants to see in a venue that's probably much too small for the entire festival crowd to squeeze into. Some of last years Concrete and Glass patrons were heard to remark that that was all they saw when trying to get in to TV on the Radio at Koko last year.
Also, while Offset still falls into the weak, expensive beer trap, you can drink as much as you like of what you can bring in to the camping area of the site, which is well served for water and toilets too. If last year's experience is a guide, the campsite isn't a Reading/Leeds style warzone either.
It's on over the 5th and 6th September, near the temperate end of the scorching festival season. In my opinion, it's a cheaper, better alternative to the major festivals. Give it a look.
It might not be cool or particularly flattering, but a decent sized bum bag for all your essentials (loo roll, antiseptic hand soap, camera etc) means you've got your hands free to throw them in the air, carry multiple drinks and you don't have shoulder ache after three days of carrying a bag on it.
Fantastic, small-scale festival in London's East End, marking its third year in 2009. I've been to the last two and, despite teething problems in 2007 (not enough toilets and hour-long queues at the bar) and the rain in 2008, I'm predicting that 2009 will see these issues ironed out.
Both years had an exciting line-up of new music, with Bat for Lashes (2007) and Jeffrey Lewis (2008) my highlights. Final Fantasy is my bet for 2009.
The Palm Tree pub in Mile End park is a great venue for a few warm-up drinks.
Hackney's Victoria Park
www.fielddayfestivals.com/
These four are essential items (the shewee not so for men).
Self inflating camping mat. These are little gems, they inflate to give you a great nights sleep and roll up to the size of a small sleeping bag easily, you will be the envy of your fellow campers.
The shewee. Ladies, no longer will you need to endure that toilet line while the men just breeze in for a pee and are back in no time.
Loo paper. No explanation required, rookie mistake if you leave home without it.
Whores bath. When the bathing facilities are not up to scratch grab yourself a wet one and give you self and rub down and you are ready for the day.
Any UK festival
Fun-packed, totally environmentally-friendly festival with a serious twist set in Regent's Park.
Expect live music, all solar and wind powered of course, have your say in the new Love London Speakers’ Forum or chill out with a short film in the solar cinema.
Younger visitors can go wild with animal encounters from London Zoo and get the chance to learn about all things green in the Green Roadshow circus tent. There is also Eco-fashion workshops, ethical finance zone, an improved Bikefest and a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
For this year only, the fair will host the Strictly Fairtrade Tea Dance, which aims to break the world for the biggest open air tea dance ever attempted.
The festival is put together by a group of local volunteers, and it's totally free and well worth the trip to join in the fun.
Regents Park (Cumberland and Gloucester Gates)
Camden Town, Regents Park or Great Portland Street.
I took my then 2 year old daughter to Fruitstock (the Innocent Smoothie festival) last year and it's one of the best things we did last summer. We just took a picnic and met up with a bunch of friends (none of them had children with them) and there was plenty to do for adults and children alike. There was a wonderful play area for toddlers and lots of other activities. I expect it'll be even better this year now that she is three.
This year is is on 5&6 August in Regents Park, London.
I'm just a previous attendee, with nothing to gain from publicising this other than sharing the fun!
This is a big, friendly event - in fact it's one of Central London's largest environmentally-friendly festivals. It's held on the first Sunday of every June in Regents Park.
At the festival you'll find many stalls offering options for the environmentally conscious consumer, with everything from herbs to green electricity and eco-holidays. Another aim of the event is to reduce its environmental impact each year.
The Bikefest allows punters to try out all sorts of bicycles and find out about cycling activities going on in London.
Regents Park
www.camdengreenfair.ik.com/
A festival in Victoria Park with a very silly name. It started as a club residency for Groove Armada in 2002 and has grown since then to a festival with true style, and soul.
Is this your business?Search Been there
