Just So Happy Customers
Posted on August 30, 2010
Youngsters treated to Manchester Camerata music in Staffordshire. Journalist Zoe Chamberlain writes in the Sunday Mercury about introducing youngsters to music and festivals.
“The Just So Festival, set in the beautiful Barnswood, a scout camp near Leek in Staffordshire, was the most amazing place for families. A ‘mini-Glastonbury’ for kids, it was a magical weekend full of everything a child might dream of. You park outside the glades, pile a wheelbarrow high with all your belongings then pitch in small glades, which means the festival is a car-free zone.
The Buckets and Spades glade had an artificial beach with Wendy houses, Punch and Judy shows and Jersey ice-cream while Roll Up, Roll Up had old-fashioned fairground rides, circus skills workshops and a dressing up tent.
The highlight for us was when Frankie did pirate training with Lindsay Brown, an early years drama practitioner from Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Using no props or costumes, she encouraged the children to go on a voyage of imagination that they led themselves, pulling imaginary swords out of their pockets, building huge imaginary boats to sail the seven seas and battling imaginary crocodiles.
Henry delighted in lots of storytime sessions with a group called 7 Stories, who weaved tales in an amazing flower-covered armchair, and music and movement with the Manchester Camerata, who played a cello and flute and encouraged the youngsters to sing and dance.”