Tickets to a free family festival at the ÃÛÌÒÖ±²¥ have proved so popular that capacity has had to be more than doubled ahead of the event.
Emma Lawrence says the free family festival at Lakeside Campus has been proving incredibly popular
The Children and Families Festival is organised by staff and students and will be held at the University’s Lakeside Campus on Saturday, 31 May.
Activities for children and families, workshops and public talks will be on offer, and festivalgoers will be able to try their hand at kayaking, ziplining, attending forest school, and enjoying the pop-up play area.
There will be fascinating talks on subjects ranging from paediatric first aid for at home, to supporting your child’s communication and language, the power of play, emotion coaching and more.
There’ll also be stalls hosting a variety of local service providers where attendees can speak to representatives from local authorities and charities.
Emma Laurence, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Early Childhood, said: “It’s going to be a great day for families and the community to spend time at our Lakeside Campus, and it’ll give us a chance to showcase what we do at the University.”
She added: “We are putting together what we think will be a really special day. There are so many people from across both the University and the local community working on this and we have been so delighted by the generosity and enthusiasm of everyone involved.”
The team had originally planned to offer 250 tickets but increased capacity after they were all taken within 24 hours of being released.
Emma said: “We put the tickets online at 9pm, and by lunchtime the following day they’d all been snapped up, so I was overwhelmed but at the same time very excited.”
She continued: “That really made us realise how much people are crying out for events like this, and we have so much to offer here in the department for Children and Families at the University so it’s important to us that we provide something to the local community.”
Natalie Piper is in the 3rd year of her Early Childhood degree and is one of the organisers.
She said: “It has been an exciting time organising the first Family Festival event for the community.”
She added: “We hope families can enjoy the day and have as much fun as we have had bringing our ideas to life, and we look forward to seeing everyone there.”
Due to high demand, booking in advance is strongly recommended. If you’d like to book your place, .