FREE activities with the kids this weekend

How are you managing the summer holidays so far? If you’re stuck for something to do this weekend there’s bound to be a village fayre, fete or carnival taking place somewhere near you. So hop on the bus – it’s much more fun than driving when you make it part of the adventure – and have a great day out.

We went to Rottingdean village fair last weekend, which was jammed solid with kids of every age. It kicked off with a high street parade of characters from Rudyard Kipling’s books. There was a small funfair with one of those teacup rides for little kids and a roundabout. A special sweetie van selling old fashioned confectionery. Tea and cake stalls galore. And members of the Brighton & Hove Council conservation team busy introducing children to lambs, talking about conserving ancient chalk downland and taking on adult volunteers for ‘Lookering’ (volunteer shepherding).

The Rottingdean drama club were out in force on the main stage, a small roped off square of village green, giving Punch and Judy and puppet shows to rows of giggling children. There was an amazing one man band doing old blues numbers and a load more musicians throughout the day. The Women’s Institute had a tombola stall. There were second hand clothing stalls, charity stalls, book stalls and plant stalls. Home made jams and preserves, a bar, a very popular barbecue, people dressed as clowns… the list goes on.

There was so much going on that the fair spilled over into Kipling Gardens, a delightful venue and a lovely place to sit, relax and watch the kids running around wearing themselves out. What a fantastic afternoon! And almost every penny we spent went to charity.

If it ends up tanking down next week don’t forget there’s 30 discount codes for kids on-site right now in case you need to stock up on kid-related stuff. Plus a load of entertainment discount codes too, many of which are for indoor activities.