Kaleidoscope review: Electric Picnic cool - created with children centrestage

As he wrapped up his Kaleidoscope set, Dec Pierce and his Block Rockin Beats just wanted everyone to cheer loud enough so Taylor fans would know what they were missing out on. File Picture

“If I could do this festival every day I would,” beams Lyra from the main stage.

And we would too.

There’s a little bit of magic at Kaleidoscope, Ireland’s only family music festival.

This is Electric Picnic cool - created with children centrestage.

While EP can - just about - work for families by day, it’s another story altogether at dusk when the real party begins.

Walking into Kaleidoscope, it is like landing into the Picnic - the same main stage, circus big tops, endless food trucks. But here there’s also the world’s biggest bouncy castle, and it is children that amble through the fields.

A magical little red bridge leads to a forest with life size flowers, opening onto Wonderlands where children can venture into tents to try tie dying, creative writing workshops, science experiments with Explorium’s amazing Mark the Science Guy and more.

Back on the main field, there were dance lessons, magic shows, early morning cartoon screenings and late evening movies. Even Dermot Bannon hosts a workshop.

At its core though, it’s all about the music.

The main stage brings the crowd together every night. For many smaller kids, it’s their first encounter with the power of a music festival. Little mouths form the shape of an O, the surprise visceral as the beat surges through their chest.

For teens, as they dance with their parents, there is a levelling on that Wexford field at Russborough House, as mums and dads become peers with their adolescent sons and daughters.

When it first began in 2019 the visionary creators behind Kaleidoscope observed that ‘family events’ were really kids’ event, so you have the kids catered to, but the adults aren’t.

Or you have an adults’ event that has a kids area added on as kind of an afterthought.

Their Kaleidoscope has transformed the landscape.

So much so that when our very own Lyra took to the stage on a sun soaked Friday evening, we wouldn’t have traded places with anyone for a seat at the Aviva Stadium. Not that the other blonde singer taking to the stage in Dublin was forgotten - far from it.

As he wrapped up his Kaleidoscope set, Dec Pierce and his Block Rockin Beats just wanted everyone to cheer loud enough so Taylor fans would know what they were missing out on. 

"I want them to hear you at the Taylor Swift gig tonight," he roared.

Earlier, as Lyra told of her bullying trauma from the stage, she called on the children in the crowd to raise their arms and chant ‘I’m beautiful’.

Over and over they screamed it in union, Lyra conducting from the stage.

The children’s faces beam in the evening sun, flushed from dancing and this new found surge of confidence.

As clips of the Aviva bombard our social media, we watch, knowing it hasn’t a patch on this night of magic, with Lyra, at Kaleidoscope.