The kids' first festival: We survived it!

The whole idea of going to the festival was, of course, my husband's. He accidentally found out that one of his favorite bands during his adolescence, Ugly Kid Joe, was part of the three-day long "Beer and Flowers Festival" organized annually in Laško, a small town in Slovenia.

Taking a toddler and a baby to a rock concert, although not mainstream, sounded acceptable to me. But taking them to a three-day festival and sleeping in the tent? I wasn't sure. Up to that point, they never spent a whole night sleeping in a tent outdoor. But my husband assured me that it would be cool. We just need to try to sleep in the camp for one night, and our main goal was just Ugly Kid Joe. I accepted his proposal and I got us a one-day entrance ticket for the day when his band is performing, and camping ticket valid for all three days.

The toddler (in pink t-shirt) looking for a spot to build our tents

The day we came to Laško, Thursday, was a warm day. We exchanged our tickets with wristbands and went checking out the camping ground. It was nicely situated by the Savinja river, right across the well-known Termana spa and wellness resort. I was skeptical of the public toilet (as I always am), but they were quite okay; plus there were trailers for showers in many points. The grass of the ground was well trimmed to the level where it was nice and soft to lay on, the parking lot is exactly at the entrance, and there was food and drink stalls.

We chose a spot and built our tents, one regular tent for our bedroom and one beach tent for our living room. The baby was okay, she never really cares where she is; but the toddler was ecstatic. The idea of sleeping in a tent has occupied her for days. Once the tents were up, we decided to eat burgers at a food stall on-site, while charging our phones in the charging point (we've got no electricity in the tents, what do you expect?). We sat down for one minute when my leg got stung by a bee. I swear god it was more painful than my two unmedicated births! It was burning for at least three hours and it was itchy for three days. However, I was glad it was me, and not the kids, that the bee chose (gee I suck at this outdoor thing).

Our "bedroom" and "living room"

We took of to the city to see the rest of the festival since the stages are on only after 6pm. The festival itself was going on in the entire city, we walked on the promenade of Savinja river to see the flowers exhibition. There was a small amusement park for children where we bought a box of popcorn, then we met the drum band with majorette groups performing so we stopped because the toddler was dancing with them. We crossed the bridge to get to the other side of the river to check out the stage where Ugly Kid Joe will perform, and finally wander around the old city and had some snacks and Laško beers at the food street.

Beautiful Savinja river with a fountain in it

My husband and the toddler checking out Zlatorog stage, where Ugly Kid Joe would perform later that night

It was dark already when we're back at the camp. Ugly Kid Joe was performing half an hour after midnight, so we decided to get back to the camp and see whether the kids will be asleep by then. We brushed our teeth at the bathroom-trailer and all of us fell asleep immediately. I woke up ten minutes to midnight and found everyone fast asleep. I woke my husband up so he wouldn't be late to the concert. We decided that I stayed at the tent since both kids are asleep, so he was off to the stage. As much as I wanted to watch and listen to them, I fell back to sleep almost immediately.

Yup, you guessed it right, I brought LED Xmas lamp for our tent ;)

We all woke up around 8am (my husband was back at the tent somewhere around 3am I guess) and it was extremely cold. It started to rain immediately after we all cleaned ourselves up. We left the tent to have coffee and breakfast at the town and it was raining the whole time. We planned to visit the Termana spa that day but gave up on the idea because of the weather -we won't be able to enjoy the outdoor pools and water park, so we decided to get back to the camp, pack the tents and head home. Had the weather been warmer and nicer, we would've absolutely stayed for another night. The kids enjoyed the stay, we slept for a night in the tent, my husband went to Ugly Kid Joe concert, met Whit Crane personally, took a picture with him and got their autographs, so, mission accomplished!

He said he'd frame this piece of paper :)

Despite the bad weather on the second day, we're very happy with the festival. My husband suggested that it becomes our tradition to attend the festival annually, of course hoping that they have great line up every year. The idea doesn't seem too crazy now, does it? :)