Festival party ideas: how to throw a festival themed party for kids

Each year we aim to throw one of our children an outdoor festival birthday party, as they are often a huge success. It is no secret that we love a family friendly festival, so with hope that the weather forecast brings a dry or even sunny day, we hit the garden and throw a festival party at home. Here are a few home festival party ideas, including festival themed party games, and festival theme party decorations to help you to throw an awesome children’s festival party in your backyard!

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Festival party ideas – how to throw a festival party for kids

So what do you need to throw an extra special party with a festival theme for your little ones? You need a little music … some outdoor crafts … outdoor party games… a little bit of glitter … face paint and a sprinkle of magic. There are so many wonderful garden festival ideas. All you need is a little imagination and some outdoor space, you really don’t need to spend the earth either. Here are a few DIY festival party ideas;  

Kids Festival party Ideas

1) Festival themed party decorations: Balloons, garlands, bunting flags

There are so many great festival party ideas at home, just decorate an outdoor space.  You can decorate a small gazebo (I think we picked one up from our local DIY store) but there are so many gazebos and shelters to choose from. We only really opted to put up a gazebo partly as a backup in case it rained (you can never trust the British weather when planning a kids garden party), but also as shade it ended up really sunny.

A gazebo is also a great area to decorate. For our festival theme party decorations we used bunting flags, leaf garlands, pom poms and pretty pastel garlands.

Another great festival party decoration would be to use outdoor fairy lights dotted around your garden, fence or gazebo.

2) Kids festival party; DIY outdoor party signs 

We had a few DIY wooden signs dotted around the garden. I ordered one of the signs from the lovely Kippers and Curtains who makes the most beautiful dream catchers and wooden signs.

You can also use LED light boards, letter boards or chalk boards dotted around the garden or backyard to really set the scene for your festival style party.

3) Kids party invitations for a festival themed birthday party

This is where you can really go to town. One idea for a kids birthday party invitation is a DIY festival ticket invite. There are so many cheap festival party invites around or you can make your own on Canva! 

4) Kids festival wristband

Another great festival theme idea is to create a kids wrist band as a party invite. Include all of the relevant party details on the wristband including date and time, and it can double up as a birthday party ticket for your festival party! Alternatively you can use patterned ribbons to tie on each child’s wrist as they arrive at the party. Tie them in a bow on children’s wrists as they enter the party.

5) festival theme party games: Clay sculpting and clay faces

This is a great outdoor activity for kids of any ages. Collect leaves, fur cones, sticks and flowers, add a little clay and you have wonderful clay faces and clay sculptures to take home or to stick on to trees and garden posts! We love to make leaves and turn them into necklaces too.

6) Party ideas for an outdoor birthday party: Face painting

A festival is not a festival without face paints, temporary tattoos (or henna) and face glitter. For our festival party at home. we decided to add a little face glitter and face painting station inside the gazebo and the kids loved all the glitter and festival temporary tattoos. Simply add some glitter around the eye area, and the cheeks.  perfect for adults too!

7) Outdoor party crafts for a kids festival party

Here you can really use your imagination. We made necklaces and painted fairy or superhero masks. Other party craft ideas are making flower garlands or leaf garlands.  There are some great bead kits around – we have a few different colour versions of this clay bead kit.

Alternatively you can create and decorate fairy or elf houses, or print out some kids colouring printable that are totally free!

8) Musical festival theme – how to throw a festival theme party for kids

A little outdoor music, a playlist, add in the wireless speakers and a few outdoor games including musical statues, musical bumps and pass the parcel = Perfect garden party activities!

9) Dress code for a kids festival party

Dress code – a festival themed kids party in the garden means party clothes, glitter and face paints. You can even have a fancy dress competition and add a choice of dressing up ‘tribes’ and be a fox, fish or snake… the choice is endless. The winner is the tribe who have the most people in their team. This dressing up competition is seen at the Just So Festival and we loved the idea.

10) Kids festival party food

So what festival themed party food do you have for an outdoor kids garden party? Here are a few ideas for party food!

• pizza
• halloumi fries
• potato wedges
• stuffed jacket potatoes
• sliced fruit and vegetables
• vegetable crisps
• halloumi and vegetable kebabs
• ice cream
• jelly
• toasted marshmallows

So do you have any kids garden party ideas to add to the list?

You may also enjoy woodland themed party ideas 

 Festival party ideas to pin for later:

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