Today we went to the Lollibop children's festival in Olympic Park. When I had seen all the social media for the event, it looked great. The thing that stopped me from buying tickets, was that I wasn't sure how my children would cope with a festival. Then I had an tweet from The Boy and Me saying I had won 4 tickets, so I decided to buy another from Littlebird and give it a go.
We headed down to Westfields and parked there. At £5 for a days parking I was very pleased. The walk to the Olympic Stadium took about 15mins. This was problematic for middle man and his small legs! We had only taken the single buggy and he was not happy with this.
When we got there we headed towards the Wow and Duplo tents. Here they had toys to play with and big man got a Duplo sticker pad so he was happy. We then headed for the main stage to sit down and get some lunch. Here we saw Pre School. I don't watch Britain's got talent so had never heard of them and was really impressed. Next was Peter Pan who are touring around Christmas with what I would describe as a Baz Lurhman style show. Dick and Dom then came on. I would have liked to have watched them, but the boys are a bit too small so we wandered off. Big man was extremely happy that Haribo were handing out sweets and Barny were handing out cakes!
We then went to the science museum tent. Big man was extremely keen to have a go at some Science and get his card stamped. This meant a bit of queuing but he managed to get an experiment book at the end so he was happy. We then went to the National Geographic tent. I liked it in there mainly because middle man got hold of the microphone and told his one and only joke. He was so proud of himself.
 |
| "Clownfish taste funny!" |
They had boxes to put your hand in and guess the materials which big man enjoyed and then all three of them searched for dinosaur bones.
We then headed to see Katy Ashworth. Big man really enjoyed her. I now have a new found respect for her. I can tell you that at no point in any of my pregnancies did I have the energy and enthusiasm that she showed!
We then rushed to see Justin who had already started. It was heaving and hard to see him even on the big screen. We still managed to have a dance and do the Hokey Cokey. I would have loved to do more but the boys were getting really tired and heading fast towards meltdown. We headed towards the meadows where they rolled down the hill and then headed out.
We had a nice time, but weren't there all day as the boys were too tired to cope with anymore. I can totally understand why some people didn't enjoy the Lollibop. It was very very busy. The layout wasn't that great, and it's a long walk from a car park or station. Food and drinks weren't horrendously priced, but when you've already paid out for the tickets it adds up. I think the biggest problem is that although there are lots of things for the smaller children to do, they can't cope with a long day out with long queues. If our children had been older, or we just had just taken big man with us, it would have been much easier. I know I would have felt extremely disappointed if I had paid full price for our tickets as it would have totaled over £100. Would I go again? It would really depend on if I thought the boys could cope with more than 4 hours, and if I could get a half price deal like we did with Littlebird (or be lucky and win tickets again!) I would make sure that we got there super early so that we could enjoy it whilst it was quieter, pack a picnic and hopefully if the children were older we could get a slightly better spot near the main stage.
Did you go to the Lollibop? What did you think?
4 comments:
We did have a FABULOUS day but not nearly in the way I expected - it totally lacked the festival vibe. Not sure what they could have done differently. Great to read your review as you had a completely different day, and did different things compared to us. I blogged our day too.
Liska x
Looks like you did the opposite things to us (my two boys are older and poor T had to just tag along with them). We enjoyed Dick and Dom and I totally loved Katie too - totally agree about not being able to do all that at 8 months pregnant - she was amazing! xxx
Great review! Mine loved that sandpit, we were there first thing and they wanted to stay there all day, we had to drag them off to do something else! It's a very long day for little ones, especially if you arrive early in the morning. We stayed until around 4.30pm which was long enough for ours, we could have stretched it out longer but it would have ended badly! We did have a really good day though, and I'll definitely be looking out for reduced tickets again next year.
We had a fantastic day, loved the discovery areas and got to watch Dick & Dom twice - on their final show my husband was screaming a shouting with great enthusiasm which is not like him at all! Picnic and a blanket and much more water are on my list for next year too! xx
Post a Comment