When Ethan was one we took him to see In The Night Garden Live at Brent Cross. He really enjoyed it so we knew that taking a toddler to In The Night Garden Live would be a positive experience. Last weekend we took him to see the show at the 02 in London. There are two shows to choose from Makka Pakka Washes Faces and Where Is Your Blanket Igglepiggle? We had already seen Makka Pakka’s story so this time it was Igglepiggle’s turn.
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Our Experience Of Taking A Toddler To In The Night Garden Live
To watch the Igglepiggle show we had to go be at the very first showing of the day. This was at 10 am, meaning another bright and early start for us. And poor Darren didn’t get a lie-in on Father’s Day!
We arrived at the O2 at 9 am. It is quite a walk from the car park to where the ‘dome’ was housed.
This made us arrive perfectly for the doors opening. They open the doors thirty minutes before the shows start. This year the Haahoos were outside the show dome waiting to greet us.
We spent some time saying hello to the Haahoos before making our way into the dome to join the standard seating queue.
As we waited in the queue I purchased Ethan a new spinning, flashing light wand. His old one didn’t last that long and these really do help to hold his attention.
It wasn’t long before we were let into the standard section to find our seats. You can find more detail about the seating in our post from our first In The Night Garden Live visit.
Where Is Your Blanket Igglepiggle?
This year Ethan was fascinated with the images on the dome ceiling. There were projections of the Tittifers and a flying Pinky Ponk. Ethan happily watched these whilst we waited for the show to start.
Ethan really enjoyed watching the show this year and got really involved with it. He showed us his enjoyment by jumping up and down to the songs he knew. He even screamed during the last song. It was great to see him having so much fun.
You can watch some highlights from the show in our below video.
Meeting Upsy Daisy
This year having preregistered to buy tickets I also got a discount. We decided we would add on the meet-a-character experience with the money we saved. I do think it is very expensive at £20 for one character meet but that also includes a photo.
I was slightly disappointed because I couldn’t get my camera to work in the character room. It was so dark in there so we only get the supplied photo.
Special Assistance For Ethan
The In The Night Garden help desk was very good with Ethan. I emailed ahead to let them know about Ethan’s needs. They offered us the chance to let Ethan see Upsy Daisy first so we didn’t have to wait for long. You normally see the Characters in the ticket purchase order. So if you purchase the tickets as soon as they go on sale you will be one of the first to meet the characters. When the show ended I made one of the staff aware that we were there. We were shown straight to the waiting point by the curtain.
When it was our turn to enter the room Ethan got a little scared. I must remember that I have to start visually preparing him for our days out to let him know what he is going to be doing! The photographer was brilliant with Ethan and showed him how to cuddle Upsy Daisy. Ethan was soon fine being near Upsy Daisy and she was able to take a photo.
After collecting our photo we then made our way home. We really enjoyed our visit to see In The Night Garden Live and it was fantastic to see Ethan really enjoying the show.
We love sharing our days out on our blog. Make sure you visit our Days Out and Experiences post to read all about them.
Wow this looks absolutely fabulous! What a lovely day! I would love to be able to take my little boy to something like this although I don’t think he would sit still and would want to be on the stage! Looks like Ethan had a whale of a time! …Found your blog after you replied to my tweet yesterday about other autistic parents (I’m @a20somethingmum) and I’m really relieved to find another Mummy with a son the same age! x
I’m glad you found us. Ethan does have to be held on our laps and I think nursery is teaching him how to sit still better, but he doesn’t do it for long lol.