I LOVE the Edinburgh festivals, all of them, and have worked my way through them through many stages of my life – but since having children, my activities have changed – gone are the beautiful dawn mornings crossing the meadows after a late late night which began somewhere in the Spiegal garden – gone are the spontaneous ‘lets just see whats on right now and buy a ticket’ moments with friends that more often than not ended a little disastrously – gone are the intellectually motivating and inspiring author discussions mid afternoon at the Book festival….now I look out for child friendly venues, free arts and crafts corners, face painting, ice cream stands, space for kids to run around and not cause chaos, free entertainment, buggy parking…….but I still love it. Infact I love it so much I thought I’d write about it ! I’m not the most eloquent or fluid writers but after such a great experience enjoying all the festivals last summer I decided to share some of that joy and also create a space where others could find out what’s on offer in one place including all the fantastic free stuff going on around the city for kids during the festivals….

It also begins as I have just booked some of my first tickets (I am suppressing squeals of excitement as they are for the Book Festival which I absolutely love love love). Every year they have a fantastic array of children’s events and visiting authors and also a huge children’s’ bookshop which is a child’s delight. Not only is there all of this, but every day there is an activity room where children can go and colour, stick, read, do crafts and get their  faces painted – it’s an excellent resource. So even if you haven’t managed to get tickets to any of the events, you can still spend a whole morning, afternoon or even a day at the festival, soaking in the atmosphere, looking at all the books and getting stuck into some of the free activities provided.

I don’t want to ramble on too long in my first post – I’m hoping to get things organised and write a little about each of the festivals and what they have to offer for children and some of the other things you can do around town if visiting for the festivals with kids….

Thanks for reading !