There's a place we go, once a year, where we have the most playful, silly, joyous time as a family. It's called the Just So Festival and there really is nothing else like it. Set in the grounds of Rode Hall, near Stoke on Trent, this year's festival was truly wondrous.
It transformed the woodland and fields into a wonderland of merriment and delight for all ages. There's music, dancing, theatre, drawing, crafts and more but what makes it special is the 'tribal tournament'. Each family chooses their tribe - lion, fox, bee, frog, fish, stag or owl - and makes costumes before arriving.
They then spend the festival trying to earn golden pebbles so their tribe can be victorious. It means that everywhere you look, there's colour and fun and drama and excitement because, at this festival, the audience is as entertaining as all the entertainment. It makes no difference what you wear, you're with like-minded people and everyone is there to have as much fun as is humanly possible in three days.
And it's only an hour from Birmingham. Read more: The 'exceptional' water play park near Birmingham parents love and it's completely free Dads dressed as fish - sequin leggings, blue beards, shark heads - chase after little children in circles, mums and sons laugh and tell jokes, kids roll down the hills safe in the knowledge that parents will happily step over them and grandparents do silly dances in the field with their grandkids. The beauty of it is that it is deliberately kept small so that .