Lollibop 2011 – washout or winner?

Yesterday, the Mummy Matters family attended Lollibop in Regent’s Park. Our aim was to arrive at the opening at 11 am but anyone who knows me will not be surprised to hear that we were running a little late! We had two 40th birthday parties to attend the night before, one in Welwyn Garden City and one near Peterborough. It was a late night, and we had extremely tired little people, such as Little Bean and Beanie Boy. When we finally arrived at our car park in London, it was about 12 noon, and we had a 30-minute walk to Regent’s Park. We easily found our way to Regents Park, but we entered the Park near Lord’s Cricket Ground and couldn’t see any sign of Lollibop, so we followed our instincts in the wrong direction!  Another 30 minutes later, we found Lollibop signs and made our way in without any trouble because we were so late we had missed all the queues – every cloud has a silver lining, don’t they say?

As it was now lunchtime and I had read a fab post by SuperAmazingMum with some survival tips for Lollibop, we had our picnic and decided to eat it before getting started on the fun stuff. Thankfully, there were hay bales all over so that you could sit down and eat, and you didn’t have to set up camp on the damp grass. As lunch finished, we got out of our programme and asked Little Bean what she wanted to do first. She had spotted one of the Heroes from Herotopia and asked if she could go and see them first, so off we toddled to see what it was all about. We were told that Little Bean could have her face painted and dress up like a Hero before standing in front of a green screen and having her photo taken with the rest of the Herotopia gang. She quite liked this idea, so we waited in the queue for her turn to come around. I was amazed by how patiently she waited; she was quite happy to just keep watching the different characters interacting with the other children, so I took the opportunity to leave Hubby with Little Bean and Beanie Boy in the queue whilst I stuck my head into one of the tents nearby to see what was happening in there. As I opened the tent, I was pleasantly surprised to see the lovely Chocorangecitymum and her family enjoying some craft time. I had a quick catch-up and chat to see what was worth doing at Lollibop and help me plan our day before heading back to my family, who was now standing in the drizzle as it was starting to rain. I went back to the queue just at the right time as Herotopia was handing out our rain ponchos, and one look at the sky told me it was time to put it on quickly!!

Within minutes, the heavens opened and emptied their bath water everywhere. Everyone made a dash for the shelter of the trees and set up camp until the rain slowed some 30 minutes or so later. It was freezing cold, and very silly. I had forgotten to take the rain cover for Phil & Teds, so we were doing everything we could to keep the children warm and dry. After a while, the sound of chatter and laughter from the crowds turned to that of crying from the children, and people’s faces started to drop along with their spirits. The lollipop was starting to look like the pictures of so many festivals I have seen on the news, which have been blasted by heavy rain, leaving it a huge boggy mess. The flip-flops I had worn were turning from white to a dirty shade of brown, and Hubby and I were close to calling it a day before we had even gotten started. But then the rain slowed down, and we were able to creep out from our now not-so-dry trees and attempt to run from tent to tent.

Creeping out from their dry haven we encountered Ben & Holly which Little Bean thought was fantastic, she even got to shake hands with Ben!! We had a quick look around some of the stalls and then headed into the H&M tent for a spot of dancing with Little Dance Flavourz which was very well timed as the rain came again. This time the dancing kept us warm and so we didn’t need to even think about heading home.

We had a play in The Fairy School tent where potential Fairies and Wizards could try their hand at Wand Making Fairy Wings, Fairy Crowns and other fun stuff. Little Bean was actually quite happy just playing in the sand, but Mummy did her dutiful role and made a Fairy Crown fit for my Princess Fairy!

As the sun came out and the rain died down, we were able to hear the music once more from the Live Stage, and Little Bean excitedly told us she could hear Rastamouse and Da Easy Crew, so we got down in the puddles to soak up the festival atmosphere and get our groove on. Throughout the afternoon, we tried our hands at some of the other crafts, watched Charlie & Lola and then found ourselves drawn to the Alfresco Bandstand, where a duo called Osadia were creating works of art with people’s hair. The duo come from Barcelona and have wild imaginations and impressive creativity. Little Bean was transfixed by them but didn’t fancy letting them loose on her hair!

Our final reminder of Lollipop will be the Human Beatboxers, who took to the stage and wowed us with their skills – amazing!!

The rain came and went throughout the day, and it’s hard to say that it didn’t dampen our spirits and spoil our experience of Lollibop somewhat. We made the most of it as best as we could, and Little Bean certainly enjoyed herself. Unfortunately, our day was marred even further by a Phil & Ted’s pushchair with a mind of its own which didn’t want to play ball in the slippery mud, so at about 6.30 pm, we finally said enough was enough and headed for home. Will we go back next year? Possibly, though, I would be tempted to leave Beanie Boy with the Grandparents as I think he will be too young for it again, and he will spend most of his time sitting in a pushchair. There were soft play areas, but it was hard to please both him and Little Bean at the same time without everyone splitting up. Perhaps the Grandparents could come with us next year, who knows? Watch this space . . . .