Happy Pear encourage outdoor activities at new Playstival fest
Playstival with The Happy Pear is Ireland’s brand new children’s festival dedicated to play, fun and imagination.
Set across two days on Saturday August 11th and Sunday August 12th at Ireland’s largest urban farm Airfield Estate in Dundrum, Dublin 14, the focus of Playstival is to ‘go back to basics’ and experience a more innocent approach to games and play. It will feature a range of hands-on, fun imaginative games and themed ‘play universes’, with no fancy technology or screens to be found!
Festival Director Shell Holden commented: “Playstival with The Happy Pear is a festival like no other. Everything will be interactive. The hands-on games and themed play areas are designed to spark creativity, trigger imagination and nurture engagement. The aim is to get families away from mobile phones, games consoles and screens for a day filled of genuine feel good fun, play and imagination.”
“Playstival with The Happy Pear has been created to allow children and families to come together, spend time together and where the child leads have the parents follow. Our new festival focuses on self-initiated, open-ended and non-judgemental play. By this we mean there’s no right or wrong way to play and the kids can imagine and interact as they wish” added Holden.
Self-confessed devotees of outdoor play and current No 1 bestselling authors, The Happy Pear’s Dave and Steve Flynn believe that spending time with their children, being in nature, and moving is fundamental to their happiness:
“In our experience connecting with other people, movement, and healthy food are key to our happiness. Today loneliness is on the rise even though we’re all more connected through technology, so being outdoors doing fun activities, and demonstrating the importance of togetherness to our kids is really important to us. We hope all the families who come to Playstival will experience that and will have a great fun day out, packed with lots of activities designed to stimulate young imaginations.”
Playstival showcases eight themed ‘play universes’ for children to immerse themselves in, use their imaginations to create ideas, roles and characters, and most importantly have lots of fun. The ‘play universes’ comprise of beautifully made, tactile wooden games, which have been designed by Festijeux, the world renowned French games company passionate about positive play and the power of the imagination. Festijeux’s wooden games have featured at many popular family events across Europe.
The creatively themed play universes vary in age-range suitability from 18 months to 12 years and include a construction site for kids, an architects area focused on team-skills, a pedal-powered train service, a kid-sized food market, a games filled animal farm, toddler-rific children’s island, a magical wonderland tea party for all the family to discover, and even a visit to the wild wild west. Parents will have the opportunity to play with their children, or to let them interact with others and the games and engage their imaginations. Each play universe will have trained supervisors.
In addition to the play universes, families can enjoy free activities at Playstival such as lego brick building with The Brickx Club, laughter yoga with Louise, storytelling, papercrafts from Paper Pet Shop, drama classes from Miss Ali’s Stage School, science shows from Junior Einsteins and mindfulness with Sprout Kids.
Additionally, delicious and nourishing Happy Pear food will be on offer throughout the weekend – from healthy wraps and salads, to hot dishes, as well as Happy Pear smoothies, hand-roasted coffees, and a selection of healthier cakes and treats.
Airfield Estate is Ireland’s largest urban farm and food experience, and festival goers will also have the wonderful opportunity to enjoy all of what Airfield Estate has to offer including egg collection, Jersey herd milking and tasting, calf feeding, heritage house tours, play areas, vintage cars, animal feeding and much more. Visitors can also enjoy the Estate’s renowned food offerings across the two-day event including a BBQ grill, deliciously creamy ice cream, home baked treats and sandwiches, and barista coffees and teas. Brunch will be served at Airfield’s Farm to Fork restaurant ‘Overends Kitchen’ all day, and The Stables Cafe will have a range of ‘grab and go’ picnic style food options that visitors can enjoy across the 38-acre estate.
Playstival with The Happy Pear will also have a dedicated ASD (Autism) friendly area onsite for any families with ASD children attending the festival. This area will be quiet and reserved for this sole purpose. Additionally there are ASD friendly provisions in place with a downloadable picture map available.
Playstival was created, and is presented, by the team at Laya Healthcare City Spectacular, which is Ireland’s largest summer family festival and the 2nd largest festival event, annually, after the St. Patrick’s Festival. City Spectacular and The Happy Pear share a vision to create a NEW festival with interactive play, connection and movement at its core.