Sunday 4 August 2019
At
the beginning of the month, we went to Croxteth Hall & Country Park in
Liverpool for the Cbeebies Summer Social. I didn’t really know what to expect,
but the thoughts I had in the lead-up to the weekend didn’t match the reality.
I don’t know if it was because Alfie was still too little to appreciate
everything, or because he couldn’t immerse himself in everything on offer, but
I actually left a little disappointed. There were certainly a lot more people
than I was expecting, but when you hear that “tickets are limited”, you wouldn’t
expect that limit to be 40,000 which is approximately how many people were
there... maybe I was expecting it to be a bit lower key. That said, I had never
been to a festival before!
As
expected therefore, the queues for everything were crazy. We left our hotel in
Widnes later than planned, but the journey to Croxteth Hall was okay, until we
reached the road and roundabout leading to the venue itself. As we arrived
fairly early, the queue to get in wasn’t so bad – but everything else: food,
entertainment, stalls, you name it, expect to queue for at least half an hour!
We
arrived just in time to see The Baby Club on the main stage, although we missed
the beginning of the set. I also read online after that there were a couple of
mistakes along the way (the joys of a live show) – but I didn’t notice those.
Alfie’s getting a bit old for The Baby Club now, but he still likes the ‘Hello’
song (and loves babies!). We stayed at the main stage for Hey Duggee – but before that, Mr
Motivator took to the stage and put us through our paces. What a throwback and
great way to start the morning – especially for those of a certain era. His
mild workout was actually quite fun and I didn’t mind looking silly stretching
and bending and lunging!
The
Hey Duggee show was a huge disappointment. The majority of the set was two
people miked up trying to get us all to dance to ‘The Stick song’, while they
kept referring to Duggee as ‘Hey Duggee’ which was pretty annoying. Duggee did
come out and make a cameo appearance, but it wasn’t great. We didn’t see The
Squirrels either, other than on the plasma screen which had the Stick and Kick
songs’ videos displayed on them. We didn’t even see Duggee walking around
afterwards (but we did see Bing and Moon Baby).
We
decided at that point to move on and explore everything else on offer. There
was a really small tent with a bubble show, which Alfie loved; while the other
stage had hourly instalments of Junk Rescue. There were craft tables where the
children could colour in and cut and stick various materials to make a picture,
before joining the queue for a photo opportunity with Zoe from the show. Alfie
reluctantly did a picture, before mummy reluctantly joined the queue for 15
minutes, before giving up!
Back
to the main stage and it was just in time for Dr Ranj and Jobi from Get Well
Soon. We actually managed to get a decent spot along the front for his set –
but Alfie was insistent on sitting on the fence and after that, tried climbing
over it, so I had to carry him away kicking and screaming. It was nearly
lunchtime, but we had time to check out the Clangers Chill-Out Garden, which
was within the walled garden of Croxteth Park. Here, there were deck chairs to
lounge in, colouring for the kids and they could even help water Mama Clangers
garden, where Alfie was in his element. The Bedtime Stories tent was also here,
but again, people were queuing 20 minutes prior to the story starting and with
no guarantee of getting in, decided against it – and went in search for lunch.
With
plenty of different foods on offer, we were spoilt for choice – from BBQ and
spit, to Greek and Indian, there was everything! We decided on pizza from The Pizza Bus, which was incredibly popular. By that, I mean we queued for an hour
to be served and then waited half an hour for our pizzas to be freshly made and
baked. Luckily, Alfie was asleep in the pushchair at that point. We ordered the
BBQ Bacon and Halloumi (with peppers and mozzarella), which came to about £15 – not only
worth the money, but well worth the wait. The pizzas were delicious, still hot
and the crust, so crisp. I keep checking out their Instagram just to read where
the bus is touring and what pizzas they have on offer at each event – dreamy!
Alfie
was too little for most of the fair rides and all of the inflatables, so we
swerved that area and bought ice creams before heading back to the main stage
for 4pm when Mr Tumble was due on. He was late on, but we caught Cook &
Line from Swashbuckle and Andy & the Odd Socks beforehand. When it actually
came to Mr Tumble coming on stage (who was the headline act for Sunday), most
of the crowds had gone and I’m sure it was close to 5pm. With that in mind, we
weren’t able to stay too long with travelling back that evening. Mr Tumble’s
set was decent though, with nursery rhymes, songs we hadn’t heard of, lots of
confetti canons and giant balloons! Alfie kept waving and pointing, shouting “Tumble”
– so I think he was pleased.
There
was just enough to be blanked by one of the presenters, adding to the misery of
being unable to have a photo with Bing earlier in the day – and just like that,
it was time to go home! I think in some cases, the organisation just wasn’t
there and I heard lots of people complaining about various things during the
day. I think I’d have had a better time if Alfie was able to do more – so I’m
not sure I’d return, unless the festival was more local to us.
Love,
Lucy xx
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Love, Lucy xx