We didn’t believe Gloworm could get any bigger and better than the previous four years, woah it absolutely smashed it!! This year was one massive five year birthday party! The site was bigger with some amazing new additions including the Dino zone and the Forest School and some of the best from the last four years such as the Circus, the fairground (including everyone’s favourite the helter skelter!) and the farm!
We stayed for the weekend and you really do need more than a day to experience as much as you can! We arrived on the Friday night to pitch our tent and headed onto the site and had a fab chilled evening and start to the festival! We went on some of the fairground rides (chargeable) and danced the night away in the Big Top before the big party on the Saturday!
Here’s a bit of a run down of each area and the activities and events!
The Fairground
This is free all day until 5pm when the rides are paid for. There are plenty of rides for all ages (and heights) this is such a few of them (!) – waltzers, train ride, the carousel, the ferris wheel, the chairs and of course the helter skelter!
The best view of the site is from the top of the Ferris wheel, what a ride and what an amazing view. In the evening the fairground is all lit up and looks amazing!
The Circus
Happy’s Circus is all about family entertainment and the kids! There are two different shows on so you can go twice and see different acts!
There is comedy, amazing acts and acrobatics such as spinning on silks suspended from the high top of the big top, really impressive! You have to make the time to visit the circus at Gloworm-what a treat!
The Hive
This area has activities that are catered for the slightly older kids, though our 4 and 6 year old loved them too! This year there was a new arcade area with hands on arcade games such as Tetris, Space Invaders, Laser Run…. these were great fun!
The Hive also included drumming and dance masterclasses, the DJ Academy (I sooo wanted to do this myself!) , Graffiti workshops, Carpool Karaoke, paint a car and there was also a superhero school too!
The Great Outdoors
This area featured the brilliant White Post Farm with farm animals and bugs and activities too. They had entertaining talks on all weekend about pets, creepy crawlies and there was also a Falcon show!
The Great Outdoors area also included the NFU explorer hut, a hay bale maze, a super high climbing wall (height restriction), and the Handmade Theatre putting on children’s shows-a lovely peaceful area of the site to be entertained!
The Dino Zone
We absolutely loved this new addition to Gloworm, not only the shows they put on but the dinosaurs we got to meet over the weekend! The children were amazed at the dinosaurs and absolutely loved meeting them, especially the baby dinosaurs the Dino Wranglers were looking after all weekend.
There was also a Jurassic Bus in the VIP area with fossil digging, arcade games and the baby dinosaurs cages-I lost count of how many times we had to go on the bus 😄 The How to Train your Dinosaur Show in the Dino Zone was amazing and when they got the kids up at the end to sing the Floss with a Velociraptor the atmosphere was amazing, sheer joy and excitement, and not just for the kids! The kids haven’t stopped singing the very catchy song too-thank you Rentadinosaur!
Into the Woods
This offered a calm and quiet space in the trees and down by the river, maybe hidden away the first day and not many people realised it was there!
This was right up our kids street, they were in the river pond dipping (and finding nice and big stones!) bug hunting, stick craft making and also fabric decorating with flowers and leaves (the big mallets were very popular!)
Sherwood Outlaws area included crafts, trying out archery (with Little John and Maid Marian) and the people were amazing, so much fun with the kids!
They also did impressive combat displays with swords and sticks, this was something different and it was really engaging! The Organix marque included crafts which we enjoyed and info on healthy foods for little ones.
Tiny Tots
Full of activities for little ones to enjoy such as the popular Tumble Tots active trail, Jo Jingles sessions, baby sensory and little learners.
CBeebies
There were plenty of Meet and Greets over the weekend, the children were star struck to meet their favourite characters-Hey Duggee, Go Jetters, Bing and Flop! There was the Baby Club and Toddler Club for the little ones hosted by Nigel Clarke (wow!) and creative crafts.
There was also the bedtime story tent where some of the stars of CBeebies read a bedtime story- Nigel Clarke, Andy Day, Maddie Moate and Dr Ranj amongst others!
The Big Top
The entertainment in here was brilliant! From a disco on the Friday night to a Katy Perry tribute and Mama G and Elmer. There were stories, plays and a Pride parade, the Big Top featured great entertainment!
Shipwreck Cove
The area for all pirates and mermaids to hang out! With its beach, canons, jail and even a real mermaid (she had most impressive tail and could stay under water for so long!) The kids were very excited when they saw pirates on the campsite camping along with us too!
Well-being
An area for positivity and wellbeing and also including the very talented Helena Tyce who creates the amazing Gloworm map!
Workshops and Activities
We had a great time trying out some circus skills including the trapeze, tightrope and plate spinning. The professionals showed the children how to spin and do tricks on the trapeze and also how to do the other circus skills.
The Elijahs Star charity Atlantic Ocean crossing boat was at the festival to raise awareness of the charity supporting premature babies and their challenge to row across the Atlantic in December of this year. An amazing charity and a fascinating discussion about the challenge and adding the children’s names to the captains log to be taken on their journey over the Atlantic!
Drumming workshops with Street Beat, we love this lady’s classes, so engaging and all kids love to bang the great big drums!
The Main Stage
Sooo many acts over the weekend, and such a great variety too! On Saturday there was the brilliant Johnny and The Raindrops , Hey Duggee (of course including the infamous Stick song!) The Lancashire Hotpots (who have the best lyrics!) the Playmobil rave (plenty of dancing to this!), and the hugely anticipated and popular Andy and the Oddsocks!! Gloworm went wild for Andy and his band!!
Steps 2 sang and danced lots of catchy favourites, with lots of costume changes! N-Trance were amazing and finished off with the amazing Set You Free, and then some totally banging tunes from the brilliant Nathan Hadley! This was one awesome party night, the atmosphere was amazing and electric, what a night!
Sunday included Maddie Moate (I am still reeling from the fact the Earth will fit into the sun 1.3 million times and who knew the Milky Way smelt of raspberries?!) Mr Blobby was back on stage for his trade mark chaos and blobby blobby blobby!
Dr Ranj was awesome and Paul Chuckle made everyone get to their feet with a brilliant set and poignant ending with his brother Barry having been with us all enjoying the festival. Twist and Pulse’s act was mesmerising, you couldn’t look away as there were so many tricks and bits of humour, what great guys and a cool act! Taylor Swift and The Stereophonics Tribute finished off the night and the weekend with amazing sing and dance along total hits, what a weekend! The rain came Sunday evening but who cared we just kept dancing through the rain!
VIP
We were extremely lucky to have VIP passes for the weekend, so what does that mean?! In the VIP area there is a bar area (less queuing), toilets (no porta loos here!) and the Jurassic Bus was in this area, which the kids loved! Throughout the weekend the Meet and Greet characters were here with plenty of time for photos and hugs and more hugs. I was worried my son would be wary of the large characters, but he loved them all! Totally starstruck he kept going back for more hugs!
The dinosaurs from the Dino Zone were nearly always here to be stroked and introduced to. The silent disco was so cool! With headphones on and only the sound of singing we all danced and spun round the tent!
The activities in the VIP area were excellent. We did a cookery session with SmartRaspberry Cookery School on the Saturday to make a Festival Salad. Everything is laid out on the table and then with aprons on you make it along with the lovely chefs. Practising measuring, mixing, chopping and shaking (!) skills. It was all made in a jar so perfect to take away, and super yummy too!
On the Sunday we made a Strawberry Cheesecake in a jar which went down very well! All the ingredients are ready for you and we piped and chopped and bashed (!) and mixed (squeezing in a bag is great fun!) The chocolate flake was a great topping!
We were absolutely thrilled to take part in the Aardman animations modelling class to make our very own Shaun the Sheep. The guy was fascinating and what a special moment being shown how to make our own model from one of the very talented Aardman animators! We had all the materials we needed ready and then followed his instructions and don’t think we did too bad a job! A really special and brilliant activity!
Camping
We often camp but this was our first time camping at a festival, when we arrived on Friday at what felt like the same time as everyone else it was manic but we found a pitch, got our tent pitched and set up our festival home for the weekend! The campsite had plenty of toilets down each side and even shower blocks too (tip to go early morning or at night to make sure you get enough water) There was a lovely friendly atmosphere on the campsite, all families having a great weekend, and not noisy all through the night as everyone had children who needed their sleep! I would definitely camp again, the atmosphere was great and you get the full weekend to enjoy the festival fun!
Inclusivity
Gloworm has an amazing atmosphere, an atmosphere that makes you feel comfortable and welcoming for all. There are hoist changing facilities and the site is level and accessible, the site is grass but pretty even. There were some brilliant shows in the Big Top from the fabulous Mama G with her friend Elmer, Rainbow Fish and culminating in a wonderful Pride parade!
Food
There is so much variety, as well as being able to try new activities you can try out different food styles too! Options included, burgers, hotdogs, stone-baked pizza, mexican, greek (the slouvaki looked amazing!), fish and chips, Asian street food, vegetarian and vegan (the falafel flatbread was yummy!) The prices were reasonable but remember cash!
There are also coffee and cake stalls (always need cake!) and bar buses for alcoholic drinks. There are sweet stalls, drinks stalls, candyfloss, poporn and ice cream, pretty much everything you could need at a festival!
There are plenty of picnic benches, loads more than previous years! You can take picnics too, which we did and enjoyed watching the main stage!
Other stuff!
There is an awesome Playmobil tent with some fab Playmobil display scenes and loads of table and great figures to play with. The Playmobil characters also know how to party with their rave on the main stage! Their is Sandicliffe Cars where you can let the kids draw on the car-only at a festival! The brilliant Bubble Inc have a stall for everything bubble related and there are permanently bubbles blowing across the site!
Useful info
Take cash! The WiFi signal was not great and vendors asked people to pay cash
There are plenty of picnic benches for picnics -way more this year than ever before
Plan your day-make a list of the times you want to see and do stuff so you don’t miss anything
There are plenty of toilets across the site
Just A Normal Mum 
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