Half-Term Adventures
For many families, half-term week starts towards the end of May. There’s scads of fun to be had around the country!
In London, the city parks are coming to life. Enjoy the revival of Chestnut Sunday in Bushy Park on May 11th, a beginners’ nature walk in Regent’s Park, a Play Day in Greenwich Park and hidden histories (including the pet cemetery in Hyde Park) on guided walks. Full programme here.
Over at the Southbank Centre, find Spring Family Fun, with a limitless recycled playground and a celebration of the Moomins at 80, where you can help build the iconic Moominhouse, discover the famous sights of Moominvalley and create art inspired by Afghanistan and the Moomins. The fun climaxes on June 1st with a huge Moominparty in the Clore Ballroom! All free.
English Heritage has a whizzy line-up of events that include Medieval May at Gainsborough Old Hall, Pirate adventures at Pendennis Castle and a trip following Hadrian’s Wall . Find something near you here.
The National Trust has a series of fun events – many of them in the fresh air – ranging from spring trails, wandering wolves at Little Moreton Hall, a festival of blossom in Salisbury and butterfly spotting at Scotney Castle. Find one near you here.
In Wales, Family Pride takes place at the National Waterfront Museum on 18th May with a silent disco and facepainting, the National Museum in Cardiff’s new exhibition is about the history of iconic photography journal, Picture Post, while the National Roman Legion Museum celebrates Gods, Heroes and Monsters! At St Fagans you can visit the newest addition to the brilliant (and free) St Fagans, The Vulcan Hotel pub. Or try yarn-based crafts at the National Wool Museum. Find more here.
The Hay Festival starts on May 22nd. As ever, there’s a packed programme of bookish events that include sessions with much-loved authors Robert Macfarlane, Andy Day, David and Yinka Olusoga and Chris Riddell, as well as kitchen garden pizza workshops, crafting and a bear hunt with Michael Rosen. Find out more about family friendly events here and browse the full programme here.
In Scotland, enjoy Woolly Weekend at the excellent National Museum of Rural Life and meet alpacas, watch sheepshearing and try family crafts.
The capital of Scotland is the place to be for fans of innovative family friendly theatre and dance. Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (24th May- 1st June) celebrates the visceral thrills of live performance with sensory performances for toddlers including Beneath The Show, where a world of white tissue paper is transformed into beautiful creatures, Double You, which combines circus with acro-dance, parkour and Chinese pole. The festival starts with Festival Family Day, a free day of pop-up performances and activities at the National Museum of Scotland. Download the full programme here.
Jack is Back!
May 1st is Beltane, or May Day. Hastings’ Jack in the Green Clun's Green Man, Edinburgh's Beltane Fire, Bristol’s Jack in the Green, Rochester's Sweeps festival and magic and music at Beltane at Thornborough Henge in North Yorkshire are wild ways to usher in the summer sun and happen across the week and weekend (find more events here and here), but this is an occasion perfect for celebrating at home too.
Step into your garden, or visit a green space near you and watch the sun rise. Legend has it that if you wash your faces in the morning dew, you’ll all have flawless complexions for the whole year (find out more here).
There's even an excuse to party hard the night before. Walpurgis Night is celebrated across northern Europe on the night of April 30 (Sunday) and the day of May 1. In Germanic folklore, this was Hexennacht (Witches’ Night), the time when the magical women gathered on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz mountains. Consequently, fires are lit to ward off evil spirits. Why not hold your own celebration with bonfires, a straw figure and general witchiness? The decision to gather in your own coven or to attempt to ward off the broomstick bashers is entirely yours!
Lock and Roll!
Our hidden, green waterways are bursting with nature and have a vibrant community all of their own. London’s yearly Canalway Cavalcade, which takes place over the May Day Bank Holiday, celebrates boating life with a three-day festival at Little Venice. There's always tons going on for families, with events such as kayaking lessons, puppet and theatre shows, pirate arts and crafts aboard a real pirate boat and lots of music. Also expect a Teddy Bears’ Picnic, boats to look at and explore, and an illuminated procession of barges at 9pm on the Sunday night. Time to mess about on the river (or, strictly speaking, the canal).
Fun-Flowers
Now is the time to plant your sunflowers and watch them grow, grow and grooooow! Why not try building your own sunflower house. The cutest of all dens!
May at the Castle
Head to Richmond Castle in Yorkshire for MayFest 2025 (3rd-5th May), a weekend of fun and festivities. This annual celebration has a vibrant mix of music, dance, drama, and hands-on activities.
Walk around a Living History Camp, try on medieval armour, enjoy daily archery and combat displays or unleash your inner performer at a circus skills workshop!
Let's Wrestle!
Hastings has a reputation for the weird and the wild, and A Curious Town festival leans into the area’s oddness. Now in its third year, the party runs throughout May, with gaming sessions on double decker buses, a chance to sculpt tiny altars to the Wild Gods, a drag queen church service, a surreal wrestling smackdown where kids get to help design a wrestler to bring to colourful life and The Curious Kids day; an arts festival with events run by local artists where children can design festival memorabilia to take home. Ticketed, some events free/free for low income families.
Check a Trade
Step into history at the Weald & Downland Living Museum this weekend. On 4th-5th May 2025, visitors are invited to immerse themselves in two days of hands-on activities, especially designed to introduce a younger generation to the heritage trades and crafts that shaped our past. There’s an opportunity to experience carpentry, baking, pottery, milling, carding wool and more. Everyone who completes their activities will receive a special certificate in heritage crafts and skills.
Wonder Web
It’s Tate Modern’s 25th birthday, and they’re holding a party! From the 9th-12th there are free celebrations with tarot readings in the Meschac Gaba room, a make studio inspired the The Shape of World display, coding demos, a mini museum, multigenerational dance sessions, and carnival-inspired DJ sets.
Louise Bourgeois’ huge spider, Maman, will also be back into the huge, toddler-friendly cavern of the venue’s Turbine Hall. Sit under it and confront your arachnophobia!
A Bloom With a View
Perhaps it’s been a very grey and soggy winter, but this year’s displays of flowers look bigger and brighter than we can remember. Why not enjoy immersing yourself in spectacle and scent?
Purple and blue blossom is having a moment with 'wisteria hysteria' hitting social media. Find it in London in Kynance Mews, Golders Hill Park or Peckham Rye Park, or search out the oldest known plant at Fuller’s Brewery. Elsewhere in the country, you’ll find the flowers adorning several of Cambridge’s colleges, with Christ’s College perhaps the most spectacular, at Marwood Hill Gardens in Devon or Aberglasney Gardens in Carmarthenshire.
The Isabella Plantation in Richmond is a dazzling blur of flowering azaleas right now, with pinks and reds as far as the eye can see. A woodland garden set within a Victorian plantation, and run on organic principles, you’ll also find rhododendrons, magnolias and camellias.
Set in the heart of the Kent countryside, Little Budds Peony farm is home to a display of over 6000 peony plants in 50 varieties. It’s open for a few weeks towards the end of May, sign up to get notice of exact dates.
In June, head to the sensory, colour-and-scent-filled lavender fields. Many farms sell tickets for a picturesque wander or picnic; find some of the best in Britain here or near London here.
Keep the Peace
2025 marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day, so expect WWII-themed events across the country. Head to a procession and flypast along The Mall, in London, or find celebrations at Bolsover, Walker and Dover castles. On 8th May, as part of the official celebrations, town criers will proclaim, church bells will ring, pipers will play from mountain tops and hundreds of beacons and lamp lights will be lit across the country, representing the 'light of peace'. Find an event near you here.
Many people choose not to celebrate, but to reflect on the nature of peace and remembrance. Find out more at the Peace Pledge Union; their campaign to decolonise Remembrance Day is particularly resonant.
When plants sing: a magical way to reconnect your family with nature
Discover how listening to the secret songs of plants can nurture calm, curiosity, and a deeper bond with the natural world, for you and your children.
In a world that seems to move faster every day, many of us are yearning to slow down, reconnect, and live more in harmony with the natural world.. what if we could just pause… and listen to a plant?
This isn’t a whimsical thought experiment. Thanks to gentle, eco-conscious technology, it’s now possible to translate a plant’s electromagnetic activity into actual music. Yes, real, living melodies that change with the environment, human presence, even a gentle touch. Imagine a plant playing its own tune. For children, this can be a magical discovery. At a time when our connection to nature is often filtered through screens, listening to a “singing” plant offers a deeply engaging way to teach respect, wonder, and empathy for all living things.
It’s science, play, and mindfulness rolled into one beautiful experience.
Stepping Out
Pull on your boots and kick out those legs, it’s the Greater Manchester Walking Festival. With over 400 walks, including nature and wellbeing strolls, LGBTQ+ community celebrations, parent and child meet-ups, menopause support events, and dawn chorus birdsong rambles, you’ll find something with your name on.
Hole in One!
Love a game of crazy golf? Head to the most colourful course in the country at London’s Canary Wharf. And best of all - it’s free! Designed by artists Craig Redman and Karl Maier, this super-colourful, 9-hole course is designed for all ages and skill levels. And there are even out-of-hours SEN sessions. The space is also home to Summer Screens, a series of free sports, films and video-game sessions.
Oak It Up
Oak Apple Day (Bank Holiday 26th May) marks the historic moment when King Charles II returned to the throne following the English Civil War. The Commandry at Worcester chooses to mark the restoration of the monarchy with a day of historical reenactment, living camps, musket firing and history talks, while places including Grovelly in Wiltshire process down the high street banging pots and pans, then head to the woods to exercise their ancient rights to collect wood.
At Castleton in the Peak District, it’s Garland Day, when the Garland King wears a head-dress, covered with wildflowers and greenery. There is a parade and dancing, and the Garland is hoisted up the church tower and impaled on the pinnacle.
Many people still choose to wear an oak leaf spring to commemorate Oak Apple Day. If you’re not so bothered about commemorating the return of the monarchy, why not try making oak apple ink over an open fire and using it in some radical art?
On the Street
With an international reputation for spectacle, pioneering street theatre and family-friendly circus performances, Great Yarmouth’s Out There Festival (29th-31st) is unmissable. See brand new, diverse, thoughtful and fun work. And if it all gets a little too much fun, the golden sands are a literal stone’s throw away.
We'll have even more ideas next month; enough fun to see you through the summer and beyond. Have a great May!
