GoFest – A Family Day Out

Over the summer we had some great family days out including attending the GoFest event at the University of Surrey venue. Coming from a seaside town it was great to spend some time away from the Coast. GoFest is in its second year and is the brainchild of founder Paul Farris. His idea is to inspire families to spend more time together, get healthy and find new activities.

We were invited to attend the weekend long event and being an active family already we were up for a challenge. We were able to book up to 4 activities in advance, with more available on the day. Activities started from 9am on the Saturday and included well-loved sports as well as some I had never heard of.

Our first stop was some family relays and obstacle fun, followed by an athletics masterclass with Olympian Roger Black. This was my highlight of the day as the boy learnt how to improve his running style, and set up for a sprint start. Roger was great with all the kids, and even stopped for a quick picture afterwards with the boy.

My next booked activity was Wall Ball, it sounded fun, and turned out to be a very energetic sport. We were treated to a one to one lesson followed by practice and a demonstration from the current UK champion. The boy bought his own wall ball, and we have since had a few family matches while on our family holiday.

Time for Mum and Dad Dragon to take a breather as the boy took part in a Free Running session with a Flair Gymnastics club. He had a great time and took part for a full hour. He learned some new moves, and was the only person to finish the class as the others dropped out. It was great for the boy to try out Free Running as he has wanted to try this for some time. Now I’m on a hunt for a local club.

We finished our GoFest day with a game of Dodgeball against another very competitive family. Girls verses Boys, and the Girls won. GoFest had plenty for us to take part in, as well as stalls, charity’s, and local clubs to chat too. A huge TV screen with coverage of the Olympics and we didn’t miss out on any of the medals during the day. GoFest ended with demonstrations of sport and dance, with live music and continued into the Sunday with more opportunities to try something new.

GoFest takes place in the summer at the Surrey Sports Park, part of the University of Surrey. With use of the Surrey University sports venue and grounds there were watersports, in the pool. You could use the university’s amazing climbing wall or join in with local clubs with the more recognised sports of football and tennis. There was far more than we could fit into the day, and we will defiantly have to come back next year for some more #GoFestUK fun.

Disclaimer, we were invited to attend the event in return for a review of our day.