We received a two day ticket in exchange for this post, however all words are my own opinion
Last year we attended the CBBC Summer Social at Croxteth Hall in Liverpool and had such a wonderful day that when tickets became available for this year I had to apply straight away. We were so lucky to be granted passes for both days and we began the countdown to the now called BBC Summer Social.
Saturday was billed more for the older children with acts such as Busted and Max and Harvey. With my children not really knowing who the acts were we opted to spend the day visiting the fairground rides and seeing what the Summer Social had to offer. Our first task though was getting into the festival. Given the amount of traffic it took us over an hour to get inside and I did think that there should be more traffic marshal to help ease the flow of cars. Once we were inside though it was much calmer and a really relaxed atmosphere.
We started by heading over to the first few fairground rides. All rides where you could not win a prize were included in with the ticket. We made the most of this and the lack of queues and rode the carousel a few times before taking a look in the little top.
The girls once again did not recognise the acts on the little top stage or the main stage so we continued exploring. Playing the CBeebies app, getting giddy in the fun house [twice] and then making our way to the Dr Who experience.
We had such a relax walk around the first half of the festival and as we were doing so bumped into a few characters. The day did not feel busy and given the weather we thought we would make the most of it and explore the Clangers garden. We completed the maze and did some arts and crafts and then headed over to the Bedtime story tent.
The story tent was a great way to escape a bit of the sun and have a little bit of downtime. All three children enjoyed listening to the story and it helped to calm them down before we ventured to the inflatable area.
The worlds largest bouncy castle awaited us. The queue was short and they had a system in place to let different heights bounce at different times, meaning the taller kids stayed away from the younger ones. It did mean that Little Man had to go on without his sisters, which he was a little unsure about.
The worlds largest bouncy castle awaited us. The queue was short and they had a system in place to let different heights bounce at different times, meaning the taller kids stayed away from the younger ones. It did mean that Little Man had to go on without his sisters, which he was a little unsure about.
Whilst his sisters were on the bouncy castle Little Man and I went on one of the fairground rides. The larger inflatable obstacle course had a really long queue so we decided to have a slush drink and ride on a few of the rides that were close by.
After all the excitement of the fairground rides and bouncing we decided to explore a little more and stumbled across the dinosaur show, it was just starting as we got there. Little Man absolutely loved it, he was giggling the whole way through. He loves dinosaurs and it was a pleasure to watch his face light up.
Day 1 was drawing to an end. We had watched all the shows we had wanted to see and rode on several fairground rides. We stayed until the very end of day one as even though it felt quiet the weather was nice and we were in no rush to return to the hotel. We took our time returning to the car and the kids even had a little play around the car as we waited for the car park to empty.
Day 2 had a very different feel to it. The audience was much younger today as the acts on the main stage were from Cbeebies and the headline was Mr Tumble. The whole day felt a lot busier and people on the whole had much shorter tempers. Perhaps due to the amount of people, or maybe the poor weather or it might have been younger children make adults much more tired. I couldn't say but I can say the day felt different.
We had to queue for longer on the rides today with the exception of the larger obstacle course. Due to the majority of children too young to go on it my daughters managed to go on several times and they loved it. I would hazard a guess that my 9 year old was probably one of the eldest children there on that day.
Given how busy it was on day 2 we didn't manage as many rides but as we had spent day 1 riding all of them we simply went on our favourite ones and rode them in between watching acts on the main stage.
We made the most of the other activities around Croxteth too and visited the farm. My youngest daughter thinks she is Dr Doolittle so she was in her element with all the animals. Taking every opportunity to hold them and cuddle them.
We headed back to the main area and bought some churros as a treat before finding a space to watch Mr Tumble. We all loved the build up to Mr Tumble. The acts seemed to build up to Mr Tumble coming on stage and Little Man loved watching his favourite acts.
Mr Tumble was utterly brilliant. I can honestly say he is an amazing children's entertainer. There were lots of songs to sing along to and some classic party songs. We were singing and dancing and generally having lots of fun.
Once Mr Tumble had left the stage the crowds seemed to ease and we went to the front to watch Hey Duggee. The weather however took a very nasty turn and it started to rain really heavy. Knowing we were parked on a field and the amount of rain coming down we decided to leave and head back to the car.
We were soaked to the skin, freezing cold and the rain was showing no signs of stopping. The car park as suspected had become a bit of a mud bath and tempers had started to show with some people who clearly had cold and tired kids in the car.
Our overall experience had been amazing. I had three very happy children who had had a fun filled weekend. We made the right choice by spending day 1 on the rides and day 2 on the shows, it worked out well for us and we experienced every area of the Summer Social. I would say for future years car parking does need looking at, it worked much better the first year and also catering. It was absolutely fantastic to have the rides included in the price as with three children it could have worked out incredibly expensive. We had a fun filled weekend, my children all had smiles on their faces and enjoyed both days and we hopefully will be able to attend again.
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