Gloworm Festival: A great family day out

This month we attended the popular Gloworm Festival for a day of family fun. We had such a brilliant time and there was so much to see and do. It was a very well organised event which makes such a difference when you’re attending with little ones. In this post I wanted to share more about the festival, the highlights of the day for us, and what they are planning for 2024. So, let’s get into it.

What is Gloworm Festival?

Gloworm Festival is a family festival aimed at families with children aged up to 13 years. It’s been running for the past five years and brings music, art, and entertainment together for a fun-packed day, or weekend.

For 2023, the festival ran from 11th-13th August at Thoresby Park in Nottinghamshire. Camping is available for Friday until Monday or you can buy a day ticket – which is what we did.

How much are tickets to Gloworm Festival?

For a day ticket, under 2s are free, ages 2-15 are £55 and adults are £75. For a weekend ticket, under 2s are free, ages 2-15 are £30 and adults are £40. These tickets don’t include camping.

If you purchase a camping weekend ticket, you’ll get your ticket included in the price. Under 2s are free, a child weekend ticket is £105, and an adult weekend ticket is £125. You can find all of the different options on the Gloworm Festival website.

What is there to do?

There is so much to do and explore at the festival. There is a large main stage with a range of entertainment, from Coldplay cover bands to a Playmobil rave. This year they had appearances from Andy and the Odd Socks, Nigel Clarke, and Stavros Flatley, to name just a few! We really enjoyed getting some food, laying out a blanket, and watching the main stage activity.

They have lots of meet and greet opportunities; we met Bluey and Bingo, Skye, Chase, and Marshall from Paw Patrol, Hey Duggee, and Bing and Flop. They also have characters regularly walking around. The meet and greets are set up really well – you don’t have to wait in a long line but instead gather around a circle of hay bales at their set interval time. The character then walks around to meet everyone. It’s great as you can enjoy the characters as you’re waiting, and we didn’t have to wait for long either.

There are so many areas that I could list, from Happy’s Circus which hosted four 45-minute shows each day to the Great Outdoors area which was hosted by White Post Farm and gave us the chance to meet their animals. My girls loved the Paw Patrol section as they had a big Paw Patroller with a slide and ball pool, along with lots of Paw Patrol toys for them to play with.

I do have to mention the fairground area. Rides are included until 5pm and the girls loved going on the family rollercoaster and the waltzers, before having a go on some of the classic fairground games. The rides are obviously popular so we did have to queue for these but it wasn’t as bad as expected.

What food and drink is available at Gloworm Festival?

They have an impressive range of food and drink at the festival with a range of street food vendors. We enjoyed the fish and chips and the Greek food but they also had pizza, toasties, pancakes, and a dedicated vegan van.

Who are the festival sponsors?

For 2023, the festival was sponsored by some top brands with the headline sponsor being Playmobil. Other sponsors included Child’s Farm, Organix, CBeebies, Kinetic Sand, and Smoby

. Each had a dedicated area and many were giving out freebies and information on their offerings, and a chance to play and try their products. We really enjoyed the Smoby area as they had all of their outdoor and water toys available to try; we want to buy a new slide so it was a great opportunity for the girls to give them all a test run!

We received a goody bag on the way in with some lovely freebies, including Playmobil figures, Organix snacks, and Child Farm samples.

What is the plan for Gloworm Festival 2024?

For 2024, the festival is moving to Holme Pierrpont Country Park after five years at Thoresby Park. It will run from the 16th – 18th August and more information is being announced on their socials so keep an eye on those, as well as their website.