Author Archives: Edinburghfestivalsforkids

Playday 2015 – Wednesday 29th July

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This gem of an event always seems to get swallowed up in all of the pre- festival chaos, but its well worth a visit – every year the Grassmarket gets transformed for an afternoon into a giant play space. This year activities will include :

  • giant sand pitImage result for playday edinburgh
  • water play
  • magic potions
  • Cardboard City
  • mud kitchen
  • parachute games
  • Improbable City
  • junk drumming
  • Giant Games

This event is organised by the City of Edinburgh Council, Early Years, in partnership with volunteers and the Edinburgh Play Forum.

Playday will take place from 12:30 – 4:30pm on Wednesday 29 July 2015.

It’s that wonderful time of year….

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Oh my….what a busy busy year it’s been and then all my hopes of getting this blog going again with all the festival updates was delayed due to family holidays, weddings and worst of all a frozen neck which was very very sore (ouch)…thankfully all that is over now and I’m as excited as ever about all of the upcoming festival delights about to hit our city !!

I have already booked plenty of tickets for the book festival which you may know by now is one of my favourite places to be during August in Edinburgh…highlights this year include Cressida Cowell talking about the final installment of the How to train your dragon books – which my daughter and partner are currently devouring !, the Teddy Bear Sleepover, the ever fantastic Oliver Jeffers, the regular Bookbug sessions and on the 16th August the Book Festival is celebrating Miffy’s 60th birthday – and you may even get to meet her yourself !

Happy Birthday Miffy

I’ve slowly started leafing through the multitude of festival brochures and exploring whats on and what there is to do with the kids and I’ll be sure to update the blog as I go along, so please do keep checking back…..I’m also very very happy that the BBC tent is already getting itself into gear and I’ll post about what kids events they’ve mentioned so far shortly….there’s just not enough time in the day to do it all !!

Let’s hope the sun also decides to come visit in August too !

Happy 1st Birthday Edinburgh Children’s Library !

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(Firstly I should apologise for such a long absence from this blog – my only reasonable excuse is life getting in the way – I hope you’ll forgive me as I let you know about some exiting things coming up in the next few days !)

The new Edinburgh Children’s Library has been open for a year now – I don’t know if you’re like me and you love this place. I adore the little round reading nooks, and the bookshelf tree and beanbags in the back room. I love that there is a whole room dedicated to arts and crafts so the kids can get creative on every visit.

So, to celebrate their first birthday they have arranged a few special activities :

  • Borrow a mystery book – from the 11th May, you might find a golden envelope and win a £10 book token.
  • Bookbug – on Friday 15th May, Bookbug will be coming along to the usual session and there will be a present for every child attending.
  • Birthday party – on Friday 15th May 2.30-4pm. Like all good parties we’ll have juice, cake and lots of party games. We’ll even have a lucky dip for some helium balloons.

I’m planning to visit for the birthday party tomorrow afternoon, so maybe see you there ??

Doors Open Day – September 27th and 28th

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This weekend its Doors Open Day in Edinburgh – a fantastic opportunity to visit and explore some of those buildings/attractions you pass every day…

The full list of whats open is on the website, but some highlights I can see are Lothian Buses doors open day on Saturday 27th from 12-4pm which includes hybrid bus racing and a kidzone with a bouncy castle and face painting, the Royal Observatory, The Grove Community Garden (Sunday 28th 11-5pm) and the Re-Union Canal boats are doing trips from the Quay to Harrison park but these must be booked in advance at :www.re-union.org.uk

Enjoy !

Big Beach Busk 2014

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So it looks like this weekend there are plenty of things to do ! Along with the Mela festival, this Saturday, 30th August- its also the Big Beach Busk down at Portobello promenade…

Its fairly simple really: A mile of promenade, a mile of buskers.  Come along and play or come down just to see the spectacle. You can be any kind of street entertainer you like from a one man band to an orchestra, a mime/robot, a choir, balloon modeller or magician, so expect to see some varied acts !!

And an exciting new addition for this year – is Rhymetimes. They  will be doing two sessions of rhymes for wee ones from 1pm to 1.30pm and 2pm to 2.30pm. It’s in Straiton Park (that’s Pirate Park) which is the little grassy play park right next to the boat club.