Glastonbury 2025 review: Mum reveals what it's really like to take kids to Glasto

As this year’s festivities rolled around, I deliberated for a long time as to whether we really ought to return as a family after 2024’s scary moments. However, I decided to give it one more go after hearing they had been addressing potential overcrowding issues.

In an appearance on the Sidetracked podcast, Emily Eavis had said the festival had “sold a few thousand less tickets” and had bought some land that sits “just on the outside of the site” to be used for crew members. There were also, among other things, various tweaks to the site layout, along with an alert system via the official Glastonbury app, warning festival-goers of busy areas to avoid.

So, as we have done many times before, we packed up the camping gear and headed for Worthy Farm. Upon arrival some changes were immediately obvious - the space given over to the crowd at the Other Stage, for example, looked greatly increased with the designated camping area much reduced in size.

For those who don’t know, Glastonbury is not only a wonderful place for young people to experience an event like no other, but there are endless opportunities to keep them entertained too. The main Kidz Field doesn’t open until Friday but the Green Kids Area, tucked away at the bottom of the Greenfields, opens its gates a day earlier, so that’s where we headed on Thursday.

In the middle of the space is a huge ship climbing frame where youngsters can run around, climb the ‘rigging’, ride the spiral slide back down to the bottom and play in the sand all around. There’s play equipment such as space hoppers, craft activities and various shows - from pirates to puppetry - to keep little ones enthralled for hours. It’s joyful for parents to watch as their children live their best lives in a secure and super-friendly environment.

There was also time to catch a little music along the way too as, even though the main stages don’t open until the Friday, smaller venues get started earlier. A particular highlight was catching some of the up-and-coming talent on the BBC Introducing stage - drawing a large crowd was Native James whose melding of hip hop, grime, punk, rock, metal and garage, lured in festival goers, including ourselves, as their sound travelled across the site.

For us, Friday started with one of the kid’s favourite acts, Myles Smith, who was performing at Woodsies. His uplifting music and cheerful persona was the perfect way to kick off the day but we didn’t have time to hang around for the whole set as CMAT was due on at the Pyramid Stage and I wouldn’t have missed her country-pop set for the world. The Irish songstress set the stage alight with her usual dose of humour and catalogue of catchy tunes and had all of us hooked from start to finish.

With a gap in our line-up must sees, it was time to enter the fray at the Kidz Field. It’s difficult to put into words how utterly amazing this place is - your children will never experience anything quite like this zany, madcap land of ebullient nonsense. To offer you a flavour of what goes on beyond the colourful signage where kids rule the roost, just some of the entertainment lapped up by my two in only one day included fairground rides, digging for dino bones, live shows, face painting, rock climbing, the list goes on and on. And we hadn’t even made it into the massive Make & Do Marquee either.

We headed back to the Pyramid stage for a well earned ice-cream and found the perfect spot to take in Alanis Morisette’s show. The crowd was thrilled as she rattled out all of her biggest hits along with some new material, proving the star has much more left to give decades on from her meteoric rise to fame in the 1990s.

We stuck around the main stage for one of my favorite bands - Biffy Clyro. I often find the Glastonbury line up can be a bit light on heavier acts so it’s always a joy when there’s the opportunity to enjoy something that kicks a little butt! And these Scottish rockers do just that - perhaps they are more acceptable to the Glasto bookers as they also have their fair share of ballads too - which they seamlessly dropped in among bangers such as Mountains, Bubbles and, Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies which, rather unexpectedly, included an interlude of the Beach Boys song God Only Knows, before returning to their 2007 hit from album Puzzle.

It’s always a worry when you really look forward to a particular band at a festival as you never quite know how they’ll perform, which songs they will go for and if the sound gods will be on their side, but Biffy absolutely delivered and was the perfect way to round off the evening. We turned in for the night with the children falling asleep almost as soon as their heads’ hit the pillow.

It’s always worth being flexible with your plans at Glastonbury and when you take kids along it’s probably even more important. As there was nothing on our music schedule until late afternoon we headed to the Kidz Field first thing and spent hours soaking up more of the silliness therein. However, when the sun is in full force at the Pilton extravaganza it can be as disruptive as the muddy years and we found ourselves seeking refuge in amongst a hedgerow for a while just to rest and recuperate. And the draw of The Script and Weezer was just not strong enough to encourage us to take on the hot dusty walk back down to the Pyramid or Other stages and instead took in acts such as The Flying Seagull Project, Michael Rosen and Dinomania UK. My 10-year-old even got the opportunity to take her drumming skills into a recording studio where she jammed along with a professional bassist and sound engineer.

By day five at the world-famous festival the heatwave had taken it all out of us so we opted for a lazy day. Spending the morning in the woodland next to the Woodsies stage we could keep cool, have a tinkle on the pianos within and listen to the various acts on the mini-stage under the trees - a sax and tuba duet a particular highlight. We made it down to the Pyramid Stage to see Rod Stewart add his name to the list of stars who have performed the renowned Sunday afternoon ‘legends slot. It was heaving despite the weather and we sought refuge at the side of the Mandela Bar where we could chill out listening to hits including You Wear It Well, Maggie May and Sailing as guests Mick Hucknall, Ronnie Wood and Lulu joined Rod.

So, while Glasto with kids may look quite different to an adults-only visit to Worthy Farm, it is just as much fun. I was approached by a couple who had been beside us during Biffy Clyro on Friday who said they had enjoyed watching our family rocking out together as it had brought back memories of when they went with their own children, saying their now grown-up kids had made memories there which would last a lifetime.

Hats off to the Glastonbury organisers who took steps to improve over crowding - as a visitor I can say they worked brilliantly. There were no signs of the previous year’s crushes, I didn’t see one instance of crowd control getting out of hand and I felt me and the kids were safe despite the huge number of revellers enjoying the sights and sounds the spectacular never fails to provide.

As I now come to terms with next year’s fallow year, when Glastonbury and the land at Worthy Farm will take a well-earned break, I will look ahead to hopefully making many more happy memories with the children in the future. Memories they too can take with them into adulthood, remembering all the weird and wonderful things Glasto can teach, and knowing they got to do it all with mum and dad being silly by their side, every step of the way.