Bringing the Kids: A Parent's Survival Guide
A free outdoor festival with thousands of people and a toddler who has opinions. What to pack, where to sit, what to do when someone wanders off — and why it's worth the effort.
Taking small children to a large outdoor event is a calculation every parent runs. Free, ten minutes away, food trucks, bouncy castles — versus heat, crowds, naps, and the particular horror of losing sight of a four-year-old in a field of strangers.
Saturday's Family Festival Day is genuinely built for this. But a good day and a hard day are separated by about six decisions you make before you leave the house. Here they are.
Sit at the back. Seriously.
Every instinct says get close to the stage. With kids, do the opposite. The back and the edges of the lawn are where you can stand up, walk a grizzly baby in a circle, let a toddler roll around, and leave for the washroom without climbing over forty people.
You'll hear everything. Nobody near you will mind noise. And you're ten steps from the exit when it's time.
Do the lost-child conversation before you arrive
This is the one thing worth being slightly systematic about, and it takes two minutes in the car:
- Show them the Info & Lost Child Point on the map in the app before you get there, and again when you arrive. It's the meeting point the whole team works from and the first place anyone will bring a child who's on their own.
- Write your phone number on their arm in biro, under the sleeve. Low tech, no battery, works when they're too upset to recite it.
- Photograph them when you arrive, in what they're actually wearing. If you ever need to describe them, you'll be holding the answer.
- Teach them who to look for — someone with a festival lanyard, or a mum with her own kids. "Find a helper" beats "stay put" for a child who is already moving.
- Pick a landmark as your family meeting point. The Gage Family Fountain is the easiest one in the park to describe and to find.
You will almost certainly not need any of this. It costs two minutes and it buys you the ability to relax, which is the actual goal.
The bag
- A blanket bigger than you think. It's your base, your table and your nap zone.
- Sunscreen, and then sunscreen again at 2pm. Early September sun in an open park is deceptive — there's a breeze, so nobody feels like they're burning until they are.
- Water bottles. There are drinking fountains in the park, so bring empties and fill up.
- A change of clothes. The spray pad is right there and children have no self-control about water. Assume they get soaked; be delighted rather than annoyed.
- Snacks they already like. Food trucks are great and also a queue with a hungry child in it.
- Ear defenders for babies and toddlers. Live sound at an outdoor stage is loud. Small ears aren't finished developing and this is genuinely worth doing.
- A power bank. You'll take 200 photos and the park signal will drain your battery hunting for a tower.
Plan around the nap, not against it
Saturday now runs 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM, with the stage from 11:00 AM. Nobody needs to do all nine hours with a toddler. Pick your window—the Kids Zone and activities in the morning, or the afternoon sets and final prayer—and leave while everyone is still enjoying themselves.
Leaving one hour early with a happy child is a completely different memory from leaving one hour late with a melting one. The full schedule is in the app, so you can pick your window before you leave home.
Lower the bar for what counts as a good day
You may not hear a full talk. You may spend forty minutes at a bouncy castle and miss the set you came for. A friend will find you at the exact moment someone needs the toilet.
That is not a failed day. Your kids will remember that church was outdoors and there was a slide and everyone was happy. That's the memory. The theology can come later — and it will come more easily to a child who associates all this with joy rather than with sitting still.
Why bother at all
When people started bringing children to Jesus, his own disciples — the serious, ministry-minded ones — tried to shoo them away. They had the reasonable adult view that this was an important gathering and children were a disruption.
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
Mark 10:14
The word Mark uses for Jesus' reaction is strong — he was indignant. Not mildly amused at the fuss. Annoyed, on behalf of the children, at the adults managing access to him.
So bring them. Bring them noisy and sticky and mid-tantrum. They are not an interruption to what's happening at Gage Park; they're a fairly large part of the point.
There's a park map with the Kids Zone, the spray pad, the washrooms, first aid and the lost-child point all marked, and it works offline once you've installed the app — worth doing before you leave, because the signal in the park will not be there when you want it.
See you on the grass. Sit at the back. 💛