Well…..eventually the sun came out (actually, more like it stopped raining) and the kids and I finally got to go out, on a planned trip to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta. Having never been before, we didn’t know what to expect. But it was a great day out and all three of us were very glad we went. More importantly, I’m sure all four of us will be going back again next year. The balloons were brilliant (although we had to leave early, which meant we missed the night time burn…..something we all would have liked to see), and wandering around the stalls and the fairground attractions was a real buzz. There was a great atmosphere and it was incredibly child friendly. Luckily the weather was okay, with the sun poking its head through the clouds for the most part and, more importantly, it stayed dry.

With almost every food imaginable on display, my children were salivating from the moment we arrived. I’m not sure I’ve seen such a diverse offering on quite that scale.

The biggest surprise for me was the live music. It was all incredibly entertaining, and non more so than a very talented artist by the name of Jasper Storey. Ed Sheeranesque is how my children would describe him, with my oldest so hooked that the first thing she did the next day was to download all of his music. With both of them sat next to me, mouths agog at just how good he was, it occurred to me that I should try and record at least one of his songs. So you can take a look below.

So if you get the chance next year to go along to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, we would all thoroughly recommend it as a wonderful family day out. But if there’s one lesson that we learned, it was not to turn up too early.

Having arrived when it opened at 12pm, we had an awfully long time to wait for the balloons to take flight somewhere towards 7pm. And with the night burn not starting until 9pm, it was just too long for us to stay. Most of the visitors seem to know all this, almost certainly from previous visits, and rocked up from late afternoon onwards. That would seem to be the way to go.

Off now to wait for the sunshine to make another appearance, in the hope that we can head to the Dorset coastline somewhere and make the most of the rapidly diminishing school summer holidays.