Last Updated on 8 August 2023 by Colette
This post features gifted product & contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Our first visit to Y Not Festival, held at Pikehall in Derbyshire, was back in 2019 – it was our first time taking the kids to a proper music festival rather than a family festival and although there were some challenges, over all we had a brilliant weekend and made some fantastic memories. We’ve been keen to get the kids back to Y Not Festival but for one reason or another it hasn’t worked until this summer.
We had been looking forward to Y Not Festival 2023 for months – making plans to head down on the Thursday afternoon (this is only doable with Thursday Upgrade tickets but means you get more choice of places to pitch your tent and bonus acts on the Thursday night) and stay for the full weekend. As it turned out, for a number of reasons, we decided to stay off site this year so we only attended Y Not Festival 2023 on Friday and Saturday. (You can’t actually buy day tickets for Y Not Festival but you are able to come and go each day if you choose to stay elsewhere). So, with that in mind, I wanted to share our highs (and a few lows) of Y Not Festival 2023
Y Not Festival 2023 Highlights
1. Our decision to stay off site was a win
So let’s start with our decision to stay off site . . . about two weeks before the festival we started to talk about the possibility of staying at home rather than camping and just driving into the festival each day – it’s about an hour’s drive from home so perfectly doable. You can read about all the reasons we chose to drive into the festival each day here.
Once we’d made the decision to stay off site, I must admit I felt a weight had been lifted – the idea of setting up camp and spending all weekend damp and muddy didn’t feel me with joy – but I was also nervous about whether we’d made the right decision, whether we’d feel we’d missed out by not staying on site and fully immersing ourselves in the festival experience, whether the conditions would mean it was actually quite difficult to drive on and off site each day.
From the moment we arrived on site on Friday afternoon (with no traffic issues and no problems parking), we knew we’d made the right decision – the walk from the car park to the Box Office where we needed to collect our tickets and be searched on entry was long enough thanks to a labyrinth of fencing designed to spread out festival goers and help organise queues – but once you’d finally made your way through that, it was another mile walk to the campsite (or a four minute tractor ride at a cost of £10). Now I should say, this was the walk to general camping – I believe there was a separate family car park close to the family campsite which would obviously make life considerably easier for families!
Another bonus to staying off site was that as well as the comfort of our own beds, clean toilets and hot showers, we were able to just turn up at the festival whenever we fancied and leave when we were done – so on Saturday, when we were less bothered about the performers till about tea time, we just chilled at home!
2. The Wombats
There was never any doubt that The Wombats would be a major festival highlight for our family – they’ve been family favourites for a long time and were in fact the first band we took Amy to see live about 18 months ago – she knows every word of almost every song and was absolutely living her best life sat on her Dad’s shoulders for most of their set!
3. The Reytons
Rotherham band, The Reytons, were a new discovery for us – we hadn’t heard of them before diving into the Y Not Festival play list on Spotify a couple of months but we thoroughly enjoyed their rowdy and energetic set! I’d definitely go see them again.
4. An early finish
We chose not to stay for headliners Royal Blood on Friday night and took an early dart after The Wombats – the main reason for that was that none of us were really that fussed by Royal Blood and taking the kids home after The Wombats meant they got to bed at a more reasonable hour ahead of another late night on Saturday night. Of course when I say a reasonable hour, it was still about 11pm before they were in bed but that beats Saturday night’s bedtime of about 1.30am!
5. Tasty burritos
After two festival weekends last year with not a burrito in sight, Dave and I were both happy to scratch that itch with some pretty delicious burritos at Y Not Festival – Ben was also impressed and said they were really tasty! (They’d want to be at £13.50 each but hey, that’s what you get eating at festivals right?)
6. Bucket hats
If you aren’t wearing a bucket hat, are you even at a festival in 2023?
The trend for bucket hats is definitely not going away and Y Not Festival was full of them – Chloe decided to treat herself to a new one with smiley faces which she wore all day Friday. Somehow Ben ended up wearing it for much of Saturday – as a bit of a joke initially but in the end he decided he quite liked it – and I appreciated the protection it gave his ginger head from the odd bursts of sunshine!
7. Better weather than we had expected
After what felt like weeks of never ending rain throughout July, and a forecast suggesting that would likely continue through the Y Not Festival weekend, we were pleasantly surprised to find that through our time on site on Friday and Saturday, we were only subjected to the briefest of showers (I was glad that I had my mac in a sac poncho ready though!). In fact, there were times on Friday where I was actually worried we were going to get burned as we really hadn’t preapred for susnhine at all! Even on Saturday when we saw warnings of high winds, it remained dry and occasionally sunny. I think most of the rain came on Sunday – which along wtih a line up we weren’t bothered about – was the main reason we chose to stay at home instead of heading back for a third day!
8. Less mud than expected
Whilst we’re talking about weather, it’s worth mentioning the mud or lack thereof. After so much heavy rain, we had fully expected the Y Not site to be a complete mud bath from the get go and amazingly it wasn’t – or at least not whilst we were on site.
9. VIP meant no queues at bar
Because we were attending Y Not Festival as press, we had access to the VIP area which meant better toilets, absolutely no queuing at the bar and the occasional, much appreciated opportunity to sit down at a table! We tended to head straight in there between bands on the main stage to get drinks and go to the loo. It certainly made the experience a little easier. (It has to be said that we thought the VIP area was a little lacking compared to our last visit, but this didn’t make us any less grateful for it!)
10. The main stage
Although I have quite a few niggles about the general lay out of the festival site, it has to be said that one of the things we loved about the main stage was that it is set at the bottom of a slight slope meaning you can get a really good view of the stage as well as the stunning surrounding countryside. Only Amy struggled to really see much this time but, for much of The Wombats and for the odd song with other bands, Dave popped her up on his shoulders – she’s getting a bit big for that now so it was quite hard work for Dave – fingers crossed she’ll be a bit taller and better able to see by the time festival season comes around again!
11. Old Skool Hip Hop ft DJ Snazzy Jeff
As soon as I spotted an hour of old school hip hop in Club Malibu on Friday afternoon, I knew we had to seek that out! Dave has always loved a bit of old school hip hop so it had the potential to be a really fun set for us!
Unfortunately, the Club Malibu tent was absolutely rammed so we just danced around outside enjoying the tunes for a bit – sadly the kids weren’t enjoying it anywhere near as much as us (a parenting fail!) so we ended up taking them to the nearby ice cream van to keep them happy while we enjoyed the music!
12. No queue for ice cream
We saw quite a few ice cream vans dotted around the festival site and at no time did we see a queue for them – this might be because of the weather not being amazing or because it was about £5 for an ice cream – but either way, we appreciated that we didn’t have to queue for ages to get the kids a mid afternoon treat! In fact bar the time Ben decided to go to the toilet near Club Malibu on Saturday afternoon and queued for what felt like actual days, we didn’t really queue much for anything – queues for food always seemed to be fairly steady – maybe because of the times we chose to eat but I think also because there was just so much choice that it allowed for custom to be spread out.
13. The Y Not App
At this point I need to give a shout out to the Y Not Festival app – I had downloaded it a week or two before the festival and loved that I was able to go through and tick exactly who we wanted to see and easily spot any clashes. The app then gave me notifications when sets were due to start so I could try and make sure I was in the right place and didn’t miss anything!
The app negated the need for a festival lanyard which, whilst they do make a nice souvenir, are usually pretty expensive and a bit of a faff. The app also sent out notifications for any changes to line ups (eg The Pigeon Detectives were moved from last thing on Friday night to the middle of Friday afternoon) as well as weather warnings or notices about leaving site etc.
Of course, use of the app does rather rely on having mobile phone signal, which wasn’t a problem for us but I know others were having issues.
14. It was nice and easy to get in and out of the festival site
Arriving on Friday and Saturday afternoon we saw no traffic and no issues getting into the festival itself. The car park had heavy duty grids and matting at the entrance / exit points and this remained in good condition as we drove off on Friday and Saturday night though I did see a note on Instagram on Sunday night asking people to wait till morning to leave – this would have been a nightmare for us if we had been staying as we typically pack up ready to leave on Sunday once we’ve had enough. The idea of being trapped by muddy conditions and no support till morning made me extremely glad we had taken the decision to stay off site and not go head to the festival at all on the Sunday
15. Sophie Ellis-Bextor
I must admit I’d questioned Sophie Ellis-Bextor being on the Y Not Festival line up – I just didn’t really think she fit with the crowd and the general indie / rock vibe and Dave definitely wasn’t bothered about seeing her.
We were wrong. So wrong. Sophie Ellis-Bextor was the candyfloss we didn’t even know we needed on Saturday afternoon! She looked fricking incredible in her gold sequin and tassel body suit and the most amazing neon epaulettes (which I’ve since sought out and would have bought if it weren’t for the fact they only design for tiny bodies!).
She drew a huge crowd and pumped out her early 2000s classics for a sunny Saturday afternoon bop – my favourite moment was her cover of Madonna’s Like a Prayer (you can catch a taste of this on my instagram highlights).
Even Dave admitted that she was surprisingly good and we’re now both looking forward to seeing her again at Camp Bestival Shropshire later this summer!
16. The last five minutes of Kate Nash
The Quarry tent was absolutely rammed for Kate Nash on Saturday night. The sound was a bit off for her set and, though we enjoyed her performance, Ben said that with all the mental health chat and shouting between tracks, it felt a bit like her therapy session and he wasn’t wrong. That said it went right off for Foundations as you’d expect – I think if were going to watch Kate Nash again, I’d just go for the last five minutes!
Fair play to her though for meeting people after her set – the girls were thrilled to have a selfie with her and Kate was amused by our “festival rules” which mean you’re allowed to sing the swear words in songs if they’re being sung live so they all shouted “Dickhead” for a photo together!
17. Everything Everything
Ben has loved Everything Everything for years, and in fact they were the first band we took him go see live after Father Christmas generously sorted him tickets when he was about 10. There was no question that we’d skip headliners Kasabian on the main stage in favour of Everything Everything in the Quarry.
The crowd for Everything Everything wasn’t massive but this worked in our favour as it meant we had room to dance and the girls could see what was going on on stage.
Ben, despite resolutely keeping his hands in his pockets, sang along to every word and would definitely rate Everything Everything as his musical highlight of the weekend.
18. Friendly security
I’ve seen lots of people moaning about security and searching at the festival but the security we spoke to doing bag checks etc were nothing but lovely. The dog handlers were fairly brusque but they were just doing their job – and I’d already prepped the kids on what the dogs were doing, why and how they just had to walk straight past them.
Dave and I both commented that the searching we’d been subjected to was fairly minimal – perhaps because we were clearly attending the festival with three relatively young kids?
19. So. Much. Glitter
We went all in on the festival glitter for Y Not Festival this year – well me and the girls did – I’m going to be finding it scattered around the house for weeks.
Amy loved her glitter braids (I take no credit for the braids, I paid our babysitter to do those for me and then just glittered them up) and she was especially excited by her first experience of UV lighting in The Quarry which made my neon orange face glitter glow up!
20. Festival Amy
Festival Amy deserves her own special spot – this kid loves music, she loves singing along to her favourite bands, sitting on her Dad’s shoulders and waving glow sticks around long past her bed time. Y Not Festival was the first time she’d managed to really stick it out to the end of the acts she wanted to see – helped of course by “disco dessert” – there’s nothing like a late evening sugary snack to power the kids through! (That’s not to say we’ve not paid heavily for those late nights over the last two days but, it’s worth it)
And some Y Not Festival lows
In the interests of balance I think it’s important to share some niggles about Y Not Festival 2023 too…
The first one being the festival layout in general – it has changed quite a bit since our first visit back in 2019 and I’m not sure it was necessarily for the better. The walk from the car park to the arena and back out again was really long thanks to a maze of fencing designed to spread people out and manage queues but this was only really necessary at the start of the festival – I’m fairly sure that once the bulk of people were on site, a shorter route could have been opened up back to the car park.
A second point about the layout was that walk between the Main Stage and The Quarry – if the distance had been to keep the stages separate to avoid sound clashes I’d have been totally onboard but actually the stages weren’t that far away from each other, there was just a really long walk all round the back of the festival to get between them. This meant it was quite hard to get between stages – especially if you’ve got kids or mobility issues (I’ve seen a lot of complaints about accessibility in general but can obviously only comment on our own experiences of the weekend).
There was a massive lack of seating at the festival this year – no hay bales to sit on (presumably they were spread across the grass to stop it from being muddy!), a handful of picnic tables around the food areas. This was particularly problematic as you weren’t allowed to take camping chairs into the arena (something I agree with to be honest as I think they tend to get in the way) and the ground was obviously damp – I was really glad we’d taken sit mats with us so we could sit to eat and we did manage to get Amy sat on the end of a picnic bench to eat one night.
The biggest complaint about Y Not Festival this year has to be the toilet facilities – there was a massive lack of toilets and urinals (and a lot of men choosing to use fences for this purpose instead which isn’t entirely unusual at festivals but still grim). The queues for the toilets were huge and they weren’t being cleaned or maintained anywhere near regularly enough so when we tried to use the toilets on exit on Friday night they were so blocked that they girls couldn’t even use them. Y Not have made a statement to say that they were let down by their supplier for toilets and basically did everything they could to sort it at the last minute – they know the facilities were subpar and have promised to do better.
And finally, the quality of the food we bought at Y Not festival was really good and the pricing about what we’d expected (£10 to £15 per meal) – eating at festivals just isn’t cheap. However, being at the festival with kids, I’d have loved to have been able to carry some soft drinks and snacks into the festival with me to save a few quid! Knowing how long the walk was back to the campsite, I’d have found it a right slog to drag the kids back to the tent to eat if we’d been staying over!
So would we go back to Y Not Festival with the kids? Yeah definitely. Would we stay off site again? Yeah absolutely.
Y Not Festival moves to the first weekend in August for 2024, you can find all the details here – UK festivals this August
Have a look at these posts next:
July festivals – if you fancy an alternative to Y Not Festival for next year!
August bank holiday festivals – festivals still coming up this year if you fancy getting involved!
Tips for taking kids to festivals
If you have enjoyed this post and found it helpful, here are a few ways you can say thanks and support We’re going on an adventure:
Click here to buy me a virtual coffee – it’s like a little tip jar but with caffeine!
I’d love for you to tag me in any photos of your adventures on Social Media if one of my posts has inspired you to visit
Click here to leave We’re going on an adventure a Google Review
Share this post with your friends – you’ll be helping me and them!
Follow We’re going on an adventure on Facebook or Instagram
