Reply to Help me enjoy festivals with my kids

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Help me enjoy festivals with my kids"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]We've been taking our kids (ages 6 and 4) to all sorts of festivals since they were very young. Look for ones that have live music or a parade route. Most in the suburbs will have free crafts for kids to do too.

Ones we particularly like:
[b]Fairfax City Rock the Block[/b]
When: Friday, September 27 and October 25 at 6:30 PM (every year May-October)
Where: Fairfax City Old Town Square
What: Live music, food trucks
What my kids love: They love dancing and getting ice cream. We pack a picnic dinner, bring a blanket, and enjoy the music for a couple hours, and then head home for a bit of a late bedtime. The music is pretty loud close to the stage where the kids like to dance, so you might want to invest in noise-cancelling headphones.

[b]Fairfax Fall Festival[/b]
When: Saturday, October 12 (every year the second Saturday of October)
Where: Downtown Fairfax City
What: Food trucks, live music and entertainment (there was logging one year, which was interesting)
What my kids love: Walking around to see the different live entertainment. There are usually also some carnival rides.

[b]Fairfax Asian Festival[/b]
When: In the spring
Where: Downtown Fairfax City
What: Food trucks, live music and entertainment, lots of free craft booths.
What my kids love: Walking around to the different music stages (some have seating, so you're not standing the whole time). The craft booths were also very fun. This year they had an origami booth, a beading booth (bracelets or necklaces), and coloring pages of famous Asians. I will say that until we found the craft area, this festival felt heavily food-based (which I think is the point) and we went at a weird time for food, so it felt like we were just saying "no" to our kids about eating a lot. But you could very easily make this a lunch or dinnertime outing and take full advantage of the food trucks, in addition to the other booths.

[b]Rockville Hometown Holidays Music Fest[/b]
When: End of May
Where: Rockville Redgate Park
What: Live music, food trucks, carnival games
What my kids love: The carnival, but, yes, there were long lines for the moon bounce. In addition to the moon bounce, though, they had a giant slide and some of those carousel-style rides, which had shorter lines. We spent the entire day there. Bring some toys and a picnic blanket/chairs and go early to get a spot in the shade. There are multiple music stages so you can pick the style of music you're interested in. Plenty of port-a-potties with those port-a-sinks too. And a sand pit that kept my kids busy for quite a while.

[b]Smithsonian Folklife Festival[/b]
When: Summer
Where: The National Mall
What: Crafts, live music and entertainment.
What my kids love: They love the craft booths and just being on the mall. The nice part about this festival is that if the kids get bored with it, you can just go to a monument or museum.

[b]Fairfax Fourth of July Parade[/b]
When: July 4
Where: Downtown Fairfax City
What: Parade!
What my kids love: Candy, floats, the librarians pushing their library carts, the Shriners in their little cars.

[b]St. Patrick's Day Parade[/b]
When: The Saturday of St. Patrick's Day
Where: Downtown DC
What: Parade!
What my kids love: The marching bands, the Shriners in their little cars, the Irish dancers[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics