Taking an 11 month old baby and a 7 month pregnant wife to a music and arts festival in the middle of Hillsborough was never going to be an easy task, but this past saturday that’s exactly what I did. Sat-Nav made finding tubby’s farm a breeze, and as we arrived the sun was shining and all was well. As we entered past an assortment of bizarre created creatures and mad max style motorbikes and traveled under a huge stick entrance complete with massive sunflower, we could see down the path and over the whole site, it looked like a little village of entertainment. We travelled down (we had a buggy with big wheels) and the first thing we came to was the kids zone. Housed inside a tennis court, it had a plethora of activities, from an Ulster Wildlife Living Seas education zone, to a place to make the worlds smallest kites, to what seemed to be a place to make the worlds biggest bubbles. Kids were running around this enclosed zone having a ball, baby Max was a bit young but I could see him going nuts in here next year, but this year he just sat transfixed by the massive bubbles!
We had a dander round the stalls and coffee stands and as we made our way down to an interesting looking area that had an open mic stage, a vita cocoa tent and all sorts of marvellous looking things, the heavens opened, this is NI and we are constantly reminded that we can plan for everything but the weather! Luckily we were able to get up the lane and into the Barn stage. The music got a bit loud for the baby in there though (stupidly we hadn’t brought ear defenders for him) so we made our way through and came out into the main arena. Luckily for us the rain had passed quickly and we were able to get into the main arena and under the large covered bit in the middle before anymore rain struck, these guys had this well thought out! Here we got some food (burritos and crepes) from the smorgasbord of food vans on offer and listened to R51 who had just hit the stage. I also looked longingly at the bar, but as I was driving had to abstain!
I have to say going to an event like this with a baby and a pregnant lady would be a challenge at the best of times, but the few hours we had the festival (we could only stay for a few hours) had us longing to come back and camp, once the wee ones are a wee bit older. The staff were first class and the atmosphere and layout were excellent, I was glad to find out that what they say is true – Sunflowerfest really is good for you!
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