It may come as a shock to those of you who know me as writer, designer and pop culturalist extraordinaire to discover that I am actually a mother of 1 year old twin girls in my spare time. I know, and with such a lithe nubile physique, I don't know how I do it myself. Eva and Mia, my precious bundles of double trouble are perfect, hilarious, messy, and all mine up until the day they decide they didnt ask to be born, life is unfair and they up sticks to find themselves in some far flung corner of the globe.
I live in Cambridgeshire these days in my home town of St Ives, an hour from London and a quaint cocktail of tea rooms, river boats and, more importantly, cheap accommodation and a plethora of Staff members (aka family) to enable one to remain sane during the trials of sleep deprivation.
This weekend we jumped into the car to return to Stoke Newington, an old stomping ground of mine in days gone by to spend the day with a dear friend and her twin boys - there must have been something in the waters in our house at Albion Road - at Lollibops festival in Clissold Park.
We parked up and took a wander down Church Street, which in my days of residency had pockets of cool but still an air of the poor man's Islington about it. Not so now, my friend. The past 10 years have been good to N16 and Church Street is now a gorgeously quirky collective of vintage shops and bakeries, the kind in which people spill onto the pavement with a cupcake and latte with effortless cool. No Greggs here thanks.
Lollibops is new to the festival scene in 2010, and is entirely a festival for kids. My one year old bambinos were just a tad too tiny to get involved in all there was to offer, but what a brilliant concept for a Summer day out. In a mind-boggling assortment of activities a corner of Clissold Park had been transformed into a magical playground, with soft play areas, a life sized animated polar bear, pirate ship, face painting tent, dressing up areas, baby workshops, swinging hammocks and sand pits. Judging by the hip attendees the organisers had judged the location with glittering accuracy. N16 is buzzing with families attracted to the central location with less hubbub than neighbouring Islington and Shoreditch, yet a stones throw from anything bang on the button. The mums are, by majority, Converse and People Tree clad; the mums I know myself who live in the area either work in the fashion and hair industry or advertising, so creative and cool is the order of the day. As my friend pointed out "See, this is the place to have kids in London. How cool is this?". Well done Lollibops, you have found your audience. Living as I do outside the urban arena I wonder how these yummy mummies and daddies afford their locale. A quick browse on Right Move reveals that the cost of renting our 1920's bungalow with enormous garden in the sticks would ill afford us a 1 bed flat in this postcode. Much as I love where we live, a tingle of jealousy arose going back to my 'hood as I pictured myself waltzing to exclusive babygroups, cupcake in hand. So, the green monster rising from within we delved into Lollibops and made way for the adult créche ( the beer tent) to steel ourselves for child mania.
Comforted by organic cider from the booze van, we took residence in an area run by boutique shop Olive Loves Alfie, whose designer baby clothes hung from rails amid dressing up boxes, fabrics and hula hoops. My two were obsessed by the colourful netting material and promplty buried themselves in a pile of fabric before I realised their strawberry covered beings were smearing fruit all around them, and these gorgeous items of clothing were about to suffer the twin mess. Moving on, we spent some time by the petting zoo where my two joined a gaggle of other Small People pointing sticky fingers at long suffering rabbits and goats who, if only they could talk would have gladly told us where to go.
A scoot around the place and we nosed into the Miniscule of Sound dance tent, a baby workshop marquee with Latino singalong sessions, Baby-Oke ( this one always had a huge queue but I was dying to stick my bairns on the microphone), and face painting. The soft play area proved highly dangerous for my two as larger kids bounced off all possible areas with increasing speed, so we took up residence under a tree for safety and just enjoyed the ambience.
Lollibops, in it's first year, has hit a niche. Whilst many festival organisers are on the button with providing activites for families this is a place where Mum and Dad can sit back and chill while the kids run themsleves ragged with glee. By 5pm as the cries of child tiredness universally kicked in so the muzzy haze of cider and sunshine had chilled out the parents in a win-win day out. It is a magical playgound, and I for one cannot wait for Eva and Mia to be just a tad older so I have the bona fide excuse of getting down and dirty with face paints and dressing up. I was about to write that what we need is an adult version of magical mayhem but then the Secret Garden Party is upon us from this coming Friday, so I will be living the dressing up dream for myself - Stokey has the kids scene zipped up but all back to mine in Cambridgeshire next weekend for SGP, where I have the privelage of diving back home for a shower and a kip in between revelries.
We heart Stokey very much, but suddenly my neck of the woods is looking pretty darn cool too.
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