Disclosure: We were provided with a free ticket to this event for the purpose of this post.
This lunchtime we drove over to Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, to attend the Kids Social event at the Parking Lot Social Spring Breakout weekend. An hour an a half of games & music in a field full of cars.
With a centre stage and two large screens every car had a good view of the action, and the energy levels of the host DJ and special guest Tiger Man kept the kids (and adults!) well entertained throughout the event.
Gates open an hour before each event starts which gives people plenty of time to arrive and get parked up in place. By tuning the car into the FM radio channel it was quick & easy to listen to all the action and it wasn’t long until Lydia was dancing out the sunroof while we waited for things to kick off.
The kids social event began with a game of music video bingo, followed by “working-out” and dancing with Tiger Man, then a quiz, then “car-a-oke”, with a silent disco to finish the party. Families had a great time joining in and dancing in their cars, beside their cars, and even on top of their cars.
Both the music video bingo and the quiz gave people the chance to join in on their smartphones. The event guide had advised us to download the free Kahoot! app for the quiz ahead of time, but you could join in via your browser as well.
We enjoyed both of these and actually came third in the quiz (thanks to my fast fingers!), which bagged us the prize of return tickets to any other event of the weekend, so we are headed back later on to watch The Greatest Showman at the drive in cinema event. I was quite impressed with us as we traditionally fail miserably when it comes to quizzes, even family ones.
During the disco & karaoke sections Tiger Man roamed the field with a camera man following him around. This was streamed on the two screens, along with shots of the crowd and the action on-stage. Lots of the kids (and the grown ups!) loved seeing themselves up on the big screens although there was the odd bit of ducking out of sight and a few stuck out tongues!
Several food vendors were on site, and you didn’t even have to leave your car to purchase your grub. They had a decent selection of food and drinks available from the vendors, and teams of people were on hand to deliver food to cars in their numbered spaces. Ordering food was super easy using the Butlr app, which we were advised to download before the event started.
There were plenty of portaloos for visitors to use, which were manned for the whole event and seemed well maintained. The staff member was using anti-bac wipes to clean down the handle & lock on each between uses, to keep things covid safe, and there was plenty of anti bac hand gel outside to use too. They also had bins available for any rubbish throughout the site, and plenty of staff on hand for help if needed.
We had a really fun couple of hours at the kids social event, and all four of us really enjoyed joining in with the different activities and soaking in the social atmosphere. After so many months of non-social stuff it was great to see other people and join in with something like this, even if we were all distancing from one another!
The whole crowd seemed to really get into it with families dancing along, cheering and shouting when prompted, and generally being entertained by everything going on.
As well as the kids social events, they have drive in cinema showings, drag shows, a pant, stand-up comedians and more – and are touring the UK with their weekend events. I was really impressed by this modern day version of the drive-in, so it’s work checking out their website for details.
