tried & tested

Due to the lockdown I haven’t attended a festival for a few years so I was over the moon when I was gifted tickets to ‘Todd In The Hole’ a family friendly festival nestled between Hitchin and Stevenage less than twenty minutes away. 

We didn’t plan on having a drink so drove to the venue, I had read the travel Information page  on the website to ensure I knew how to get there. It’s best to follow the postcode SG4 7JJ if your driving as this postcode takes you the main car park. The car park is only a short walking distance to the main entrance and is buggy friendly(as is the whole site). The camping site is positioned right next to the main entrance so it’s super close if you need to keep nipping back to your tent (did I forget to mention you could camp there!)

Upon arrival the entrance staff were friendly, we had a little wait due to a safety measure (someone had parked across an emergency exit) but luckily we had a little shade and could hear the wonderful local choir from where we were standing. After a short while we were allowed in, security were a little lax on searching so we just walked straight through. 

We had a little walk around to find our feet and work out where to go first, I always suss out where the loos are especially now with a newly toilet trained toddler. There were three blocks, one by the front entrance, one at the far end by the kids zone and one in the middle ‘In The Woods’ area. There were no baby changing facilities at any of them so take a mat (there are lots of shady, grassy areas) there is however a larger cubicle for disabled and people with a pram so if your on your own with a pram you can just wheel baby in with you. 

My children spotted the large sand pit straight away, tucked in the shade and full of spades and buckets to use. You can still see the main stage from here so we spent a lot of our day enjoying the acts whilst the kids enjoyed the sand.
At the far end there was the kids zone, there was football practice, free circus skills, free festival glitter, sand art, a large covered area and kids stage. The kids stage had great entertainment to suit a variety of ages as well as local children from the local performing arts school ‘Stagecoach’. The kids shows were on from midday to six on both Saturday and Sunday. 

                                                                                                                                                                                             

There was a lovely mixture of food, something for everyone even the fussiest of eaters as well as three bars, one of which was VIP. At the bar you were charged £1 for your first cup and then each time you go up you simply return your empty for a clean one (you aren’t charged for another unless you lose it) Alternatively you can take a refillable bottle and fill up with tap water at one of the free tap water refill stations. 

What I really appreciated was the amount of seating, old pallets and cable drums had been up cycled to provide seating in front of the bars so you could sit back soak up the sun whilst enjoying the main stage acts like ‘Definitely Could Be Oasis’ , ‘Martin Kemp’ and ‘Highly Minogue’ to name a few. I thoroughly enjoyed  watching the ‘Elvis Off’ where the Elvis impersonators would go head to head and the winner would win a trip to Las Vegas, the winner was chosen by the crowd and the lucky man was ‘Danny Graceland’. 

Overall I thought this was a very family friendly festival and very well executed considering this is just their second festival, look forward to returning next year (possibly even camping). 
Tickets are already available for 2023 here.