‘Full of Love’: Festival gives young carers a weekend to be kids again
Hampshire: For most UK festival fans, the last weekend of June means Glastonbury. But for the country’s young carers, another event held that weekend leaves deeper memories.
The Young Carers Festival in Hampshire offers children aged 11 to 17 with caring responsibilities a rare break from adult duties. Run by the YMCA Fairthorne Group in partnership with The Children’s Society, the annual residential weekend lets attendees swap domestic stress for the simple joy of being a child.
“It’s the only weekend that they get away from their caring responsibilities,” organizer Karina Barnett told Positive News. “It’s so full of love.”Young carers are defined as children aged five to 18 who help care for a loved one, often a parent or sibling with illness, disability, or addiction. Their daily lives can involve cooking, cleaning, managing medication, and emotional support, leading to social isolation and missed schooling.
Estimates of how many young carers live in the UK vary widely. The 2021 census put the figure at around 120,000, but other surveys suggest the number could be in the hundreds of thousands.
