Freekuency Festival - On Festival with Children and Vans!
Freekuency is a free festival in Portugal, held once a year in Spring.
It was our first experience going to a festival as a family with our 3 year old son, but it turned out to be a great experience for children!
The location of the festival was to be officially announced the day before the festival started, but with help of friends, we managed to be there 2 days earlier, and the parking areas were already getting full when we arrived!
Already on the day we arrived, I'd never seen so many mobile homes in one spot! And it was hard to imagine that more could and would arrive!
But they did! There were the more crowded places near to the festival area, but also more quiet and very nice areas next to the lake.
The camping area itself was a little village with little pirate cafés, bars and people selling handmade things.
café in camping area
All camping outside festival area is for free.
Home made liquor
I really loved how the camping area itself was like a small village made up by all these people living in mobile homes, coming together to meet, some to make money, all to have a good time.
The festival was, as mentioned also all free and non-profit, just based on donations and crowdfunding.
Above and beneath some shots still from before the festival officially started.
Building the pirate ship circus stage (a bus that turns into a pirate ship!) and the kids area. There were already many people and children running around at this point, and people helping building the stages.
Everybody works for free.
And then the festival started. Personally I spend most of my time in the Kids Area! It was such a nice space with activities, trampolines, toys, dress up clothes, swings and lots more.
And so many cool kids! You could see that these were not the standard school kids, but mostly wild nature traveler kids, children of hippies, punks and free spirits.
I've also never seen such a big amount of kids with dreadlocks, undercuts and long wild hair! There was also a haircut and hair tattoo saloon for kids and grown ups to look even better!
the hair saloon, couldn't manage to turn the picture.. !#¤%&
Marshmallow grilling rocket wagon!
Going to a festival with a child was a different experience! It was really great with all the kid friendly spaces and other families. I think it would have been another story at a less family-friendly festival, so if you consider going to a festival with children, it's definitely worth to check out how kid friendly it is!
I would recommend Freekuency to families!
But that being said, I also found it a bit difficult to really enjoy myself, being with Willow almost all the time. I guess I was also in a weird stage myself and found it really difficult to talk to or connect with the other people. It was a bit difficult to really find my role, but that probably says more about me than the festival, I think most other parents managed to have a bit of fun ;)
psychedelic stage
The music was mainly electronic, with 5 big stages, all with really beautiful decorations!
kids playing in the camping area
Kid's Area in the evening. A movie was always put on in the early evening, as the last event for kids of the day
Then there was also the juggling area where kids and adults could play with juggling tools during the day.
Or chill out
Even though the pictures might not tell, we actually had a lot of rain during the festival, and two amazing rainbows! Just caught one on photo.
But then it was lucky that most people had a cosy home to retire to, when the rain set in.
the afternoon rain clouds coming in
For me, all in all a festival with much less dancing and music than before, but a beautiful family experience. I could probably have partied a bit more, but I think I wasn't in the right mindset at the time.
But I enjoyed the atmosphere and I think I would definitely come back!
It is amazing that a big festival like this is free!
And I think the kids enjoyed it too.
A meeting place on the road, and a celebration of life and spring!
Thank you as always for reading, upvote and resteems are appreciated! And if you want to know more about the Freekuency Festival in Portugal you can visit their website. Next one will be in April 2019 :)
Love it!
Your beautiful pictures really captured the essence of this festival, even the bad weather didn't dampen the spirit of this festival or the people that attended.
It's a shame you that you couldn't let loose but I'm sure the next time you go that Willow will be older and won't need his Mother as much and you will be free to get your freek on!
Lovely post @frejafri, thanks for sharing.
haha, yes I hope so :D
Hello! I just realised I don't have your number. Can you email it to [email protected]
Thanks you x
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thank you! <3
nice post @frejafri, I recognize some of the people and vehicles, looks like you had a great time, thanks for sharing it with us all xxx