Come with us on our weekends at two beautiful Festivals in Sussex!
If you're looking for a weekend in nature with the family then Into The Trees Festival is the perfect place to explore a forest school heaven!
Into The Trees is a beautiful family festival which invites you to run wild and free amongst the ferns of the Ashdown Forest! If you and your kids are nature lovers then this is definitely the place to be and the perfect way to end the festival season and the end of summer! This year we returned for the second time and we explored pond dipping, slacklining, hammock swinging, obstacle courses, clay bug making, bracelet weaving, wood caving, playground building and loads more!
Head to the website to check out the full programme!
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Our Highlights: Woodland Tribe, Pond Dipping, Arts and Crafts with Nature Makers and Waffles on a Stick!
Peaceful
One word I'd absolutely use to describe Into The Trees because you are taken away from your busy life and step into a forest school heaven! The camping area is super close to where the activities are held and the sinks, toilets and showers are situated slap bang in the middle so everything is really easy to get to!
Food
We love the food stalls at Into The Trees, our favourites are:
Waffle On A Stick @zoeswaffleonstick
Woodfire Pizza thepizzawagon
Vegan Curry and Cheesy Nachos Manjula
Coffee @solitarybeecoffee
Smoothies @juiceup
Ice Cream @rainbowscoops
Look through the full list of vendors here
Music and Bar
Mums and Dads you'll be happy to know that The Woodland Bar is right next to the mini stage where the Campfire Sessions happen. Our kids loved having a boogie with Jolie Skye and Matthew English plus the Brighton Ceilidh Collective was big hit!
Our Favourites
If you plan to go to Into The Trees I'd recommend checking out what's on throughout the weekend and make a list of what you'd like to take part in, I did that this year and I'm so glad I did because I came home feeling like we had made the absolute most of it! Here are some of our favourite things that we got stuck into...
Pond Dipping
Arts and Crafts amongst the trees with Nature Makers
Obstacle Course with Wild Fitness
Wood carving, Flag making with Go Wild With Us
Slacklining, Hammocks and Playground building with Woodland Tribe
Bug Sculptures with Lucy's Little Forest School
Tree Listening with Tree Listening
Bracelet weaving, Masks and Decoration making with Schools Without Walls
The Ugly Bugs Wingding - Story/Puppet Show with Enter Edem
Unicorn Academy with CraZy BeanZ
Mud Kitchen with Holmes Wood Play
Festival Day Bag!
Ok, so one thing I've found super helpful for going to Festivals is to pack a Day Bag! In this bag is going to be all the bits you'll need for the day and evening! This saves you going back to your tent if you want to stay in the woods for the whole time!
Snacks (lots)
Re-usable water bottle
Wipes
Sun Cream & Sun Glasses
Plasters
Spare clothes
Sandals/Wellies
Ear Defenders
Phone and Money
GOOD VIBES!
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Elderflower Fields
This year we were lucky enough to win tickets to Elderflower Fields which I have been wanting to go to since my son was two! This is the sister Festival to Into The Trees which is much bigger but on the same site!
At Elderflower Fields there's more music and more to do so make sure you grab the sequins, wellies and glitter for an awesome fun filled weekend!
We absolutely loved the Circus Skills with Jitterbug Circus, CraZy BeanZ Mini Disco, Dried Flower Crown making with Box & Bloom, my kids just cannot get enough of making Bug Sculptures with Lucy's Little Forest School and we learnt about rare sea life at the Pocket Science geodome on the Leapfrog Lawns. We danced to 45Day DJ set and also their daughter ZiziFortyFive's first festival set as they were banging out the tunes in The Nighthjars area! Headliners this year at the Dragonfly Stage were the Dub Pistols and we had such an epic night, definitely a highlight of our year!
Booking things to do
Makes sure you scroll through the website and check out what you would like to do, some things are free and some things need to be booked and paid for.
Check out all the activities and artists on the Elderflower Fields website here!
To get the Festival vibes go check out our friends reels on Instagram @adventures_of_themitchells
Here are some of my favourite photos from our weekend!
Photos and writing by Jasmine Moulden