This Bank Holiday weekend, The Mall celebrated the arrival of Radio 1’s Big Weekend with a festival of their own, a free family event dubbed ‘KidsFest’.

Running from Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th May, the event offered an alternative take on the festival fun in Central Square while Radio 1 took over Stockwood Park, with fun activities to get involved in for a younger audience.

Whilst the Thursday and Friday were aimed towards pre-schoolers, offering festival free play, the Saturday and Sunday included fun circus workshops for children up to the age of 12 years old. There were also family discos and balloon antics to enjoy across each day, with families enjoying the electric atmosphere, fun music and games.

Little ones also enjoyed picking up a festival style wristband to commemorate the event as a fun extra to their day out.

The Mall offered free glitter face painting to anyone who was a ticket holder for Big Weekend, with many attendees stopping by to get fantastic designs painted to top off their festival looks. Families could also enjoy the face painting for a suggested donation of £2 to chosen charity Luton Foodbank. A total of £423 was raised for this fantastic charity as a result.

Festival goers also stopped by the plethora of food outlets available at The Mall on their way to Stockwood Park to take advantage of exclusive food and drink discounts running across the event days to fuel up for the weekend ahead.

Lavinia Douglass, Marketing Manager at The Mall Luton commented “It was fantastic to see so many families enjoying KidsFest over the weekend, for what was a very exciting Bank Holiday for Luton. For those who weren’t able to get a ticket to Stockwood Park, or for those who had music lovers who were a little too small for the big stage, this was a great way to channel the electric atmosphere of the weekend in our very own Central Square.”

Lavinia continued “If you missed out on the action, there’s still time to enjoy our free Flamingo Trail event running throughout the Half Term, where children can go on a hunt around The Mall in search of answers to complete their trail guide – there will be fun prizes too!”

Further information can be found on The Mall’s website.