Elderflower Fields The Family Festival 2025

Nutley

Elderflower Fields is a small, safe and friendly annual festival, designed especially for families with younger children held each May Bank Holiday weekend in the Ashdown Forest. We believe in the transformative power of spending time immersed in nature, letting kids be a little bit wild and free, and in appreciating great food and the arts together with friends.

Free Tickets for Personal Carers

A free ticket scheme for carers or personal assistants is offered. All requests must be submitted no later than the 1st May. You are eligible for a free carer ticket if you are entitled to Disability Living Allowance (no specific rate required), are in receipt of Personal Independence Payments, have a registered assistance dog, or are registered severely sight impaired. If you would like to take advantage of the free carer ticket offer, please book your own tickets via the website, and then contact us at hello@elderflowerfields.co.uk. You will need your ticket number, proof of DLA or that you are registered severely sight impaired, plus the name and contact details of your carer.

If you are not able to provide any of the above evidence but feel you need a personal assistant ticket to access the festival, please provide any evidence you have which will be consider on a case by case basis.

Accessibility

Elderflower Fields takes place on a part of the estate of Pippingford Park. The festival occupies roughly 60 hectares in total, made up primarily of grass fields and mixed woodland. The site is generally sloped. There are gravel roads around some parts of the site and firm dirt tracks through parts of the woodland, but much of the festival is accessible only over grass or through unpaved woodland. This can be especially difficult if the ground is wet due to heavy rain.

The festival site has two primary performance venues, Dragonfly Stage and Moonshine Fandango with dozens of family activity locations dotted around the woodland and grass fields. Of the two performance locations, Dragonfly Stage sits at the bottom of a gently sloping grassed field. To view the stage requires access off made up pathways and roads. Moonshine Fandango is located just off a made up pathway in the Lazy Glades area of our festival. Other informal performance, workshop and activity spaces are located around the site and are generally accessible directly from or within a short distance of a made up pathway or road.

Elderflower Fields offers accessible camping pitches at the bottom of the live-in vehicle field (additional charges apply for this option) which is then downhill to the festival. For those who require it, customers may reserve a dedicated space into which they can bring a car or other vehicle allowing them to pitch a tent on relatively flat ground, with a guaranteed amount of space. Their car is allowed to stay there for the duration of the festival. This area is located about 200m from the Dragonfly stage and the heart of the festival site.

For guests staying in the general camping areas, the distance from the car park, through the ticketing tent, to the middle of the main family camping field is about 650m. The distance from the furthest part of the live in vehicle field, to the very bottom of the site, which is conceivably the biggest single distance which you could travel across the whole festival site, is about 1200m. The route from the car park, through ticketing to the campsites is mostly downhill across grass with occasional flat sections. On your return to the car park this means the walking route from the campsites is mostly uphill. There are accessible camping pitches - https://south.elderflowerfields.co.uk/accessibility/

Disabled Parking & Drop-off
  • Blue Badge
  • Drop-off Area

A reserved section of the car park closest to the ticketing tent for blue badge holders. To book these spaces in advance please email hello@elderflowerfields.co.uk no later than the 1st May. Once booked, on arrival please make the car park stewards aware you have reserved a blue badge space as you arrive on site and have your blue badge clearly displayed. They will direct you to the reserved accessible parking area. Please note, these spaces are still within the main car park and simply mean the distance between your car and the campsites is reduced by a few hundred metres.

Free Buggies

An accessible golf buggy for customers with accessibility needs. If you think you might have trouble moving around the site during the festival, please contact hello@elderflowerfields.co.uk as soon as possible and no later than the 1st May. A limited buggy service and a dedicated person and phone number to call during the event in case you need help is offered.

If you are a wheelchair user, an accessible buggy to pick you up from the car park and drop you off in the festival site (and vice versa) at prearranged times can be requested. Again please contact hello@elderflowerfields.co.uk as soon as possible and no later than the 1st May.

Toileting/Changing
  • Accessible Toilets
  • Baby Changing Facilities
  • Other (please specify)

All main toilet blocks have an accessible toilet

Baby change and breastfeeding tent next to the information tent. The team in the Information Tent has access to a microwave should you need one for warming milk. 

At the moment Elderflower Fields do not have any audio description, sign language or captioning services for performances

Guide Dogs
  • Guide Dogs Welcome

All accessible enquiries and requests should be submitted by 1st May. 

Please contact Elderflower Fields to discuss bringing Assistance dogs

Strobe free policy - guarantee no strobe lighting is used

St John Ambulance provide medical services and they have a First Aid Tent and a Mobile Treatment Unit on site. 

If you have wheelchair batteries or other equipment which needs charging, the team at the Information Tent will be able to help you with this. 

If you have medication or special food items which you need to keep refrigerated, this can also be provided via the Information Tent team. The team in the Information Tent will also have access to a microwave, should you require one for heating food.

Location

Pippingford Park
Nutley, TN22 3HW

This page was last updated on 16 Jul 2024