First week highlights 2018

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Wowee, it’s been a VERY busy first week indeed, even slightly longer than a week as we squeezed some preview days in ! I feel like it’s been a month already…
We have seen some WONDERFUL shows, really enjoyed hanging out at the Pleasance Kidzone too and making some shrinkies, loved the hot donuts and the delicious ice cream stall next to it in Assembly gardens and all the brilliant street performers – some great bubble guys along middle meadow walk most days !

In terms of shows, we’ve been blown away by some great family circus, enjoyed musical delights and some spellbinding storytelling – highlights have been :

Duckie – A mesmerising musical show by the fabulous Le Gateau Chocolat, a reimagining of the Ugly Duckling that is all about realising your own inner strengths and beauty – just beautiful.

Arr We There Yet ? – A total treat of an hour – pirates, sea shanties, swashbuckling sword fighting fun and lots of impressive acrobatics !! Add to the mix some silly puns and its entertaining for the whole family ! Climb aboard and enjoy the fun…

Chores – Messy, silly circus for littlies ! Two brothers are set the challenge of tidying their room with hilarious consequences…fast paced, frantic and fun !

Splash Test Dummies – The Dummies are back with a fabulous splish splashing adventure ! Baywatch style lifesaving, beach volleyball and synchronised swimming all get a Dummies makeover !

The Bear – Beautiful puppetry makes this enchanting show even more captivating – lovely songs, a great ever changing set and a gentle story perfect for wee ones..

Wilde Creatures – Tall Stories return with a musical tale, looking at what qualities would make someone fit for a town statue – Intelligence ? Beauty ? Generosity ? Oscar Wilde’s lesser known fairy tales get a spectacular outing in this storytelling gem !

And finally our winner of the week, that the whole family LOVED :

Attrape Moi – Spellbinding circus tricks, giant trampolines, ice pop fun – there’s a little bit of everything in this show – the kids mouths were hanging open in wonder !!! Best to see it for yourselves !

Something a little bit different…

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For one day only, this Sunday 12th August, you are invited along to the Museum of Childhood for an interactive detective mystery!  The world’s stories have gone missing and the Bureau of Untold Stories are looking for some new detectives to help find them….

The silly sleuthing adventures of The Pink Panther meets the unpredictable hilarity of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in this imagination igniting, detective drama for the whole family. The production plays The Edinburgh Festival Fringe for two performances only as part of it’s current national tour.

These are at 1pm and 3pm on Sunday 12th August  and are FREE – more information here :

See you there to help unravel the mystery !!

 

 

 

Wonderful Woodland Tribe

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PictureIf you made it along to the Woodland Tribe last year then you’ll know how fantastic it was – your kids were able to get nails and a hammer and help build their own adventure playground ! The end sculpture was amazing and LOTS of fun was had on the way….

The good news is it’s coming back !!! Woodland Tribe are coming back to the Pavilion Cafe, on the Meadows in 2018! They will be there on Friday 17th, Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th August. So give your children a return to school playful building treat!

 

This year Woodland Tribe are being sponsored by American outdoor clothing company LLBean. So all tickets are free!

There are 4 sessions on each day: 10.00-11.30, 11.30-1.00, 2.00-3.30, 3.30-5.00. You will need to book your children onto a session/s via Eventbrite

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/woodland-tribe-tickets-48643752774?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

There are only 25 children tickets per session so booking in advance is highly recommended. Children need to be accompanied by an adult. They recommend ages 4-16yrs but if you have adventurous toddlers who you think will enjoy it bring them along too.

This year they are going to build a boat and a ship yard to celebrate Scotland’s boat building heritage! But I’m sure pirates will also be involved somehow!

Book Festival Opening This Saturday – 11th August

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Image result for edinburgh book festival 2018Festival season is in full swing, and yet another one opens this weekend – The Edinburgh International Book Festival – bringing with it a host of fantastic events, free arts and crafts activities, two beautiful bookshops and a gorgeous space to hang out in Charlotte Square…

There are lots of free arts and crafts activities every day in the fabulous Story Box area and the opening weekend has the following brilliant sounding drop-in events :

Sensational Science with Edinburgh International Science FestivalSaturday 11th August – Sensational Science With Edinburgh International Science Festival – Drop into Story Box to experience mind-boggling experiments and dazzling demonstrations from a team of spectacular science communicators. The Edinburgh International Science Festival takes learning beyond the classroom to an exciting new level where anything is possible and everything is fun. Come along to witness explosions and expect plenty of mess from their Street Science team.  11 – 16.30 Story Box

Join the Super Power AgencySaturday 11th and Sunday 12th August– Join The Super Power Agency -Hop aboard the Super Power Agency Bus and become a literacy superhero! Special agents show you how to take a book out of your head and onto the page, where it can change the world, with fun bookmaking and storytelling activities. (11 – 16.30 On George Street)

Sunday 12th August – The Big Book Of Brilliant Ideas – Join theatre-maker Hazel Darwin-Clements to create a huge book filled with all of your amazing ideas. Big or small, all ideas are welcome! But this is not just a book – it’s whatever you want it to be: a spaceship, a den, or a puppet theatre perhaps. Drop in to transform enormous pages into exciting creations that will become one giant, unique, brilliant book. 1.30 – 16.30 Story Box

Full listings of all the free events for children and young people can be found here ….enjoy!

 

 

First day…

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Phew..we’ve been super busy and have got fully immersed in festival fever already ! Our first full day out and about was lots of fun and we zipped about town on our bikes, soaking up the atmosphere and planning lots more festival adventures….

Our first stop was to see the fantastic Showstoppers Kids’ Show – we really enjoyed this one, especially the interactiveness of it and the cast had us up and dancing a ‘poo dance’ and other various madcap things !! It looks like this is starting to sell out again like in previous years, so make sure you book !

Whilst at the Pleasance we stopped in at the wonderful Kidzone and the kids got stuck in making shrinkie keyrings – they’ve got lots of templates as usual and a wide variety of very reasonably priced arts and crafts activities and free colouring in too ! They even take suggestions, so my son was delighted that someone had been in the day before asking about Ninjago templates and there were already two for him to choose from (there may be a few more too next week after our chat with them yesterday !!)…

Next up we whizzed to Summerhall to check out the delightful Duckie ! An extremely charming reimagining of the story of The Ugly Duckling, which opens up some important conversations about self acceptance and inclusion – some great song choices too ! Leaving Summerhall on a high note, we were super happy to see the return of the ‘hot donut’ stall in George Square gardens….

A short trip to the High Street to watch some fun street performers doing magic, lead us nicely to our final destination of the day – Assembly to watch the spectacular Attrape Moi – we were blown away by this. Absolute jaw dropping, mesmerising acrobatics, juggling, hula hooping and even trampolining !!! We loved every second…….

…….and then home to relax ! And for the kids to start practising for their grand plan of running away with the circus…..