latitude with kids and no car - any tips?

[93pjb]

This is our first festival with kids although we do camp regularly with them (5.5 and 2.5).

For a weekend camping trip we usually use our car club car but I have bad memories of how long it takes to get out of the car parks at the end of a festival and I'd prefer to try without the car. Is that mad? Does anyone have any tips?

I was thinking of going up myself on the thursday with the toddler to set up camp, using the bike trailer to carry all the kit. DD has school, so DH would come up with her on the friday and bring anything that I couldn't carry. I don't imagine we can carry much if any cooking stuff though

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Lovecat]

Are you in Family camping? The spaces go really quickly and in our experience people tend to spread out (lots of windbreak compounds) so your plan to go early on Thursday is a good one. We witnessed people turning up on Friday with valid tickets for family camping having to go into the general fields because there was no room left (and people camping in fire lanes, which we were a bit waaah about).

Food/Drink in Latitude is not cheap and fixed price - ie a coffee will cost you £3 and a burger £6 (or whatever it is) no matter where you get it from. We do try and self-cater at least breakfasts while we're there as DD is a fussy eater and the only thing she'll have off food stalls is sausages or baked potatoes....

They should allow you to bring the bike trailer right into the campsite where you're pitching - I've never seen anyone do it, but they allow you to lug your stuff on garden trolleys from the car park so I can't see why they wouldn't let you do that. We used our garden trolley (with a blanket inside) to ferry DD around late at night when she got sleepy and didn't want to walk, your bike trailer should be very useful for that if it's a pushable version.

Latitude is a great festival for DC that age - DD is now old enough to 'get' the bad language in the Comedy and Literature/Discussion tents so we have to avoid them, but there's so much going on that you just stumble across; indie theatre by the riverside, acoustic music in the woods, performance art stuff everywhere - and the official kids' stuff is great too. Not going this year as it clashes with our holidays :(

The music is LOUD btw so if you can get sound-cancelling headphones for the DC so much the better.

WRT parking, we have been in good weather and leaving the car park was very straightforward. The last time we went, it POURED down for 3 days solid and the car park turned into a quagmire. We actually packed up in advance and as soon as Suede had finished playing we went home - because of the mud it took 2 hours to get out of the car park - so I think it's very weather dependent how bad it gets.

[93pjb]

Thank you! very helpful. We do have family camping tickets but sounds like thursday morning it is then. The bike trailer doubles as a pushchair so I was thinking we could use it to ferry the children about at night. I'm going to have a trial run packing it up to make sure we can get all the kit in and I can still move it! Good tip about the ear defenders too. Thanks again!

[happyyonisleepyyoni]

Hiya we have made a last minute decision to go to Latitude with DC age 2, 11 and 13, never been to a festival with kids before and the last festival I went to was Glastonbury 1992 Any tips on what to take - we are borrowing a tent, have airbeds for us. Is it better to just take a duvet than sleeping bags? DH is not a good sleeper so I am getting an eyemask and ear plugs for him.

Re food - is it worth borrowing a camping stove and attempting to cook? no way of refrigerating so I cant see how I can cook much anyway.

Should we get any kind of emergency toilet for the middle of the night?

[MummyPigsFatTummy]

happyyoni, I haven't been to Latitude but if you have to drag your stuff to the camping field, sleeping bags might be easier than duvets. Also if you have an airbed you will need some insulation to go under it (or under you) to stop the cold air creeping up from the ground (admittedly silver rescue blankets which you can sometimes get at the pound shop are suppsed to do this job well).

Given the cost of food at festivals, I would agree that it is good to cook where you can. Could you get a coolbag or coolbox and stuff it wth ice? Bacon/sausages, butter and milk should stay cold enough in there for a couple of days at least. Then you could also bring some frozen portions of pre-cooked bolognese/chilli and mix with pasta/rice. If the portions are frozen they will help to keep everything else cool, as will a few bottles of frozen water (which you can then have in the tent at night for drinking).

Emergency toilets are a very good idea. Just bring a sturdy bucket, line it with a bin bag and put in a big nappy or some people use cat litter. I use something called Poo Powder which you can get on t'interweb but it is expensive if you are not going to be camping regularly. My advice would be to make any toilet wees-only if possible!

[MummyPigsFatTummy]

Oh, and bring headtorches for everyone, and don't forget the weliies and suncream

[happyyonisleepyyoni]

Thanks MummyPig, thats a great idea about using a nappy inside the toilet bucket. Will investigate if I can borrow a stove and take a truckload of snacks. Yes we'll have a decent walk from the car to the campsite, but at least we've got 4 of us that can carry stuff. I have started a packing list!

[123rd]

We are off to latitude for the third time with the kids. We alway take a small bucket with a lid for night time wees. And we have bought a folding sack barrow type thing from Argos as the trip from car to camp site is sooo bloody far. Wrt cooking I cook a chilli and pasta and then freeze them and keep them in the freezer bag as long as possible along with frozen sausages and bacon.