excited party-goers start the festivities at Sunrise: Another World

Friday morning starts without the sound of rain on the roof of the van, and the day makes promises of good things to come. Unfortunately, the good vibe is somewhat short-lived when our son arrives to report that he woke up to find his tent door open and his wallet on the grass. On the plus side, he had spent his 'pocket money' the night before and had the foresight to store his phone in his sleeping bag. Other neighbours weren't so lucky, and some had lost all their cash for the weekend as well as phones and other valuables. This wasn't the start to the weekend that we had hoped for. We heard that some arrests were made, and I hope that this means some festival-goers were reunited with their property and could enjoy their weekend.

Following a good old fry-up, we set off to try to search out some activities so the children can earn their Passports. The activity points are quite hard to spot, so we content ourselves with a huge variety of other activities instead. The boys start their day by getting involved with The Lost Boys Apocalypse – a den-building activity that is to run all weekend using pallets, and traditional carpentry skills. This activity features throughout quite a lot of our weekend, and I'll come on to it a bit more in detail later as it really is worthy of note.

After a good session of hammering, we move up to the Children's Area which is FULL of activities for all children. The people who run this area believe that all activities should be free and that whole families should be secure and relaxed and entertained in the environment they provide. Our children particularly enjoy the skate park, the climbing wall, and the double space hoppers (which we might have to try and find to buy). The younger children in our party are particularly taken with the secure play area with toddler friendly playground equipment and sand pits. We hear of a pizza making workshop and decide to give it a try so they are instructed on kneading and spinning the dough, and adding their toppings and then seeing their creations cooked in the stone pizza oven. When we ask how much it costs, we are amazed that this is yet another free activity for the children, and even a donation for cost isn't accepted.

While our son goes climbing in the woodland nets in the trees, our daughter asks if we can make something that she hasn't done before. We wander round The Shire and return to the Blacksmiths workshop where she can make a copper beaten pendant for a very reasonable price. We learn about tree oghrams and we decide to beat the Willow tree symbol in to our pendant and she is delighted with her creation and what she's learnt.

All this activity is hard work and we are in need of recharging our batteries so we wander back to main arena and the children and I take in the family film showing in the Groovy Movie while my husband watches Lou Rhodes and her son Reuben. She does a cover of a song by The xx called 'Angels', and her hits 'Rain' and 'Gabriel' which is a haunting and mystical melody and he has a lovely time.

We top the batteries up still further by visiting Donut Dollies who furnish us with another couple of hours partying by serving luxury hot chocolates and chocolate-covered doughnuts. Did you know that Donut Dollies were a group of ladies in the Salvation Army who used to make doughnuts for homesick soldiers using their meagre rations?

Refreshed, we go back for the evening party and arrive in time for the end of the Utah Saints set who play Something Good and finish with a remix of The Red Hot Chili Peppers hit 'How Long'. Their set is followed almost immediately by Freestylers who work their magic and we are all soon up and dancing. The youngest of our party is only nine months old and is particularly exuberant in dancing in his carry cot and delights everyone in the vicinity with his blatant enthusiasm of the music. It's a shame Freestylers themselves can't see how much he loves it.

We move seamlessly in to the Krafty Kuts set who I have seen a few times in the past and have a big soft spot for so I'm quite excited. Unfortunately, it doesn't appeal so much to our children and we hit that inevitable wall that happens when they have grown too big to need a pushchair to get them through the evening at a festival and we head back to the van whilst the last song is playing; a magical mix of another Red Hot Chili Peppers track 'Can't Stop' and the Stanton Warriors' hit 'Turn Me Up Some'. We have to reluctantly forego seeing RSVP who are a festival favourite of ours. However, we direct the older boys in our party to go on a research mission, a challenge which they accept happily and come back much later having spent the night in The Underworld and sitting by a fire.

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