Review: Timber Festival 2019

As you may recall from my preview to Timber Festival, we were all very excited about spending the weekend at the festival this year. Last year I had been heavily pregnant, and so we opted for a day ticket, but this year, feeling full of beans and several kilos lighter, we went full steam ahead with a weekend ticket. I was a little apprehensive about taking a nearly one year old to a festival, but we know that Timber is super family friendly and laid back, so I was sure it would work out!

I needn’t have worried, Ollie is a natural when it comes to festivals!

If you followed my Facebook or Instagram stories from the weekend, you’ll know that we had a blast (check out my insta highlight!)

It’s so hard writing this review as I don’t even know where to start! We managed to cram in so much over the weekend. Here are our highlights, which I’ll try to do justice to!

Firstly, I have to stress just how family friendly Timber is. If, like us, you’re not festival experts and have young kids, there’s no need to worry. The facilities are top notch-there’s even a baby changing tent. The showers and toilets in the campsite are clean, there are drinking water taps all over the place and there’s so much family friendly entertainment.

The camping facilities are great at Timber and not as crowded as many bigger festivals.

During the day we took our time and tried to savour the experience. We spent most of our time in the central areas. One of the main benefits of Timber is that it’s a fairly compact site, so even with small children it’s possible to cover the whole festival. It is a bit hilly though so that is worth bearing in mind, we definitely made good use of our festival wagon to get around. I did try to plan our weekend, but in reality it was hard to stick to a timetable. I was mainly trying to keep Finn amused, as he is prone to being a bit whiny, but he surprised me by getting involved and really throwing himself into the weekend.

What is it about kids and bubbles? We struggled to tear Finn away from the bubble man on several occasions

Definite highlights included the marble run, the circus skills tent (seriously, thought Finn was going to move in there) and ‘Beginner’s Luck’. This amazing area featured life size versions of popular games, such as Scrabble, Guess Who and Ludo. It was great fun and a really innovative attraction.

Beginner’s Luck was a popular attraction throughout the weekend

We also caught a performance of “Are we nearly there yet” by Handmade Theatre Company. Once again it was a hit with Finn, even if the rain did start coming down mid way through.

Speaking of rain, Saturday afternoon was a little on the damp side, but that didn’t stop us enjoying ourselves. We headed back to the tent for a long lunch break, and managed to avoid the worst of it. Unfortunately it did mean that the afternoon performance of “Baron in the Trees” was cancelled, but I did get to see it later that evening. Watching the acrobats perform in the trees against the setting sun made it even more magical.

Watching the Baron in the Trees was a special experience and a definite highlight of Timber 2019

During the day, Timber is very chilled and has a laid back vibe, but it really comes to life and is much busier as the sun goes down.

Timber certainly comes alive in the evenings

There are stories and songs around the campfire, shadow lanterns, magical creatures and top notch music acts, both on the main stage and on the Eyrie stage in the trees. Due to a baby that won’t nap and a four year old that loves to sleep (really!), we missed a lot of this, but saw enough to experience the magic.

The festival site is full of creatures at night

Overall, I would heartily recommend Timber Festival to anyone looking for a small festival that is great for all the family. We’re certainly not the only ones, as it was named best new festival last year at the 2018 UK Festival Awards. There seemed to be lots more going on compared to last year, so it was nice to see how it has developed, yet still keeping it’s small and friendly, laid back feeling.

We were lucky to experience some gorgeous weather over the weekend

There are plenty of food options at Timber, which makes it easy to cater for young children-even the fussy ones! They had a great selection of vegan and vegetarian options, plus family favourites like toasties, hotdogs and pizza. Finn can also personally attest that the ice cream was fab.

Timber has whet my appetite and I’d love to do more festivals.

We all enjoyed the weekend, my only criticism was that I would have liked more music performances during the daytime. There was a few occasions when I was sat with a drink enjoying the sun and a bit of music would have topped it off nicely.

Timber has definitely made me want to do more festivals with the kids-I’m just not sure that many can live up to it!

Have you ever been to Timber? Which other festivals should I check out?

Disclaimer: We were gifted a family weekend ticket in exchange for coverage on my social media and blog. All opinions are my own.