Family tickets are a common feature of festivals, with the Electric Picnic no exception. But is a music festival really a good environment for children, and does bringing along the kids detract from the experience, asks BRIAN O'CONNELL
EARLIER THIS summer, I took my nine-year-old to Glastonbury for his first proper music festival experience. During a discussion afterwards, one music journalist I met reacted with scorn to my excited musings about the experience. “Festivals used to be about music,” he said, “now they’re more concerned with bouncy castles and bungee jumping.”
For some, music festivals should remain family no-go areas, hallowed ground only for those over 18 and ready to rock. Yet festivals such as Glastonbury and this weekend’s Electric Picnic pride themselves on providing a family friendly vibe, with tailored kids’ areas, circus and theatre fields, purpose-built play areas, and family camping areas patrolled by stewards and scented with roasting marshmallows. The question is: have festivals become more family conscious on their own lead, or is it that families are more willing to go to events that traditionally have been the preserve of a late teen or adult audience? And is there a danger that festivals could move too far from their musical remit?
On our first morning in Glastonbury, we took junior to the kid’s area, where he quickly fell in with the local circus workshops. The ringmaster took pride in telling us his daughter was born under a tree opposite the Greenfield’s area, 20 years previous. Kids were taught how to walk on stilts and juggle, and before we knew it, junior was part of the act for the Sunday morning show. We found that the key was to strike a balance between kids’ events in the morning and music in the evenings. At no point over the three days did we regret the decision to bring him along, and while the experience involved a lot of walking to and from kids and music areas, the thought and design of the events made life easy.
Those I met along the way included John and Christina Kelly, from Union Hall in Cork, who have taken their son Oscar to Glastonbury several times. “We’re having an absolute ball,” said John Kelly, “I think perhaps 20 years ago, security was pretty ordinary and maybe there was a lot more trouble at these events. Festivals are so well policed nowadays, that it is very child friendly. Oscar calls Glastonbury ‘magic land’ and I don’t think festivals are unsuitable for kids. The only inappropriate thing he saw was a few bad magicians.”
Where Glastonbury leads, others have followed. This weekend’s Electric Picnic has doubled the size of its family camping and children’s activity area. While individual tickets for the event are still on sale, family tickets have already sold out. The family camping area has tripled in size with 1,500 kids expected to make the trip to Stradbally.
“Last year we had about 500 children,” says Avril Stanley who runs the festival’s Body and Soul area. “The first year we started I think we had about 100. I think we are seeing an increasing trend and with the recession families are slower to jump on a plane and go to Europe for the weekend. They are also realising that festivals have changed a lot over the last 25 years. It takes a lot of pressure off parents having to figure out what activities to do on a weekend away when it’s all worked out for you.”
Next year, Stanley says the plan is to introduce a nanny service, giving parents more freedom to catch late music acts and have some time out. “The main stages are almost secondary now to the event,” she says, “so you have comedy, circus, art installation and so many other things to do as a family.”
While festivals may have got their act in gear, some one-off gigs still have a lot to learn. TV producer and scriptwriter Ferdia Mac Anna recently took his 12-year-old son to an outdoor concert in Dublin. The experience was such that he says he’ll be slow to return to a gig with his children, mainly because of issues getting out of the concert site afterwards. “I remember being at festivals years ago, such as Macroom and Lisdoonvarna, and there were kids there and very few issues. Woodstock as well, if you look at the footage, there are lots of kids at the side of the stage. The issue I had was that both kids and adults alike could have been seriously hurt trying to get out after the concert. The organisation was a real let down and at one point I thought, if someone falls here, there will be serious injuries.”
For older acts doing the rounds, it’s inevitable that many of their fans will have families now, and Mac Anna says as much thought should be put into catering for their changing audience demographic, as it should their musical output.
“I’m not going to bring kids to an open-air gig any more. We have tickets for Coldplay and I’m going to hand them back. I have spoken to other parents who have given up going to gigs. Perhaps some festivals are more family friendly, but there’s a long way to go yet.”
The Electric Picnic runs until Sunday. www.electricpicnic.ie
