Hay Fever Garden: Free stuff for families
All of these events will take place in a space on the Festival site especially dedicated to family comfort. Enter through the magical Wiggly Wigglers garden, enjoy a drink from our coffee cart and make use of our many picnic tables. Please remember however, this is not a crèche and we cannot be held responsible for children who wander off.
Highlights include:
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Book People’s Children’s Zone
From Saturday 24 May until Sunday 1 June, the Book People’s Children’s Zone will be a haven of fun for families. Open from 10am each morning, the zone will hold free activities all day every day, aimed at the under 8s but enjoyable by everyone. Alongside the activities, some run by Hay Fever Helpers, some by the RSPB, there will be a full library of books for you to browse.
Keep your eye on the Blackboard for details of daily events.
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Hay’s Baby Space
If the Book People’s Children’s Zone feels too busy for you and your littlest little ones, you can pop next door to the Baby Space. With sofas, beanbags and toys supplied by Mamas & Papas, this is a relaxed area for feeding, playing and exploring baby’s very first books. To help you, there are Baby Bookworm and Book Start Rhymetimes scheduled in, along with a special visit from FUNtastic!, who provide the music for the amazing baby® cd books and whose new take on nursery rhymes will delight all the family.
Keep your eye on the Blackboard for details of daily events.
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Hay Clay
Jon Williams of Eastnor Pottery, highly acclaimed potter and teacher, is our Artist in Residence this year. All week long he will be working with mud and clay to create and decorate a storytelling chair.
It will be messy, it will be fun and everyone is welcome to join in.
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Make and Bake
Mix the ingredients, knead the dough, shape the loaf and then let Warren Lee Cohen, author of Baking Bread with Children, bake it in his clay oven, before returning it to you as a warm wholesome Festival snack. Warren will be making a clay oven on Saturday 24 May and once it’s warmed up you are all invited to make and bake.
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Growing Green
Take home a baby tree. On 28 or 29 May, Warren won't be with us but we are lucky enough to have Sasha Norris (of siren.org and author of Super Kids - 200 Ways to Save the Planet) on the Festival site to help us dig the earth, sow seeds, learn about plants and flowers and maybe even taste a few.
