Lucidity Festival Recognized As World's Best Family Friendly Festival At 2018 FestX Awards

Lucidity Festival, the Santa Barbara-area music and arts festival, was recognized as the world's best family friendly festival at the 2018 FestX Awards held in Las Vegas on December 11. The prize reflects eight years of innovative programming and integration of a family-centric ethos at the outdoor festival, which features live and electronic music, participatory workshops, experiential art, yoga, and much more for adults, families, and kids-at-heart.

"There are three essential components to the Lucidity Festival family experience: safety, imagination, and inclusivity," said Amy Krohn, family services branch manager. "We've established best-practices in all three realms." The hub of the experience is the I AM Family Garden Village, which provides a centralized camping community with round-the-clock family-friendly programming including music, young leadership education, a teen center for 13-17 year olds, a Junior Volunteer Program that allows youth to earn their ticket through acts of community service, and the Grande Finale Kids Parade around the event in collaboration with Santa Barbara Solstice.

Last year hosted a number of interactive spaces and programs such as the Wizard Scouts interactive group, Soul Palace Imaginarium, Dome of the Space Wanderer, the Riley Rainbow Family Circus Encampment, The Lighthouse Teen Center and the Lucid Creation Station. This year's program is still in development but promises to be as rich or richer than last year's.

A robust series of safety protocols protect young participants, including a parent-child registration system, a guardianship program trained in emergency protocols, and a Family Services department that provides transportation assistance, as well as ADA support.

"Safety is incredibly important to the family experience at Lucidity Festival," said Marketing Director and Co-founder Jonah Haas. "Once you provide a safe container, children and parents open up and find themselves creating and exploring the world of their imaginations in the community-setting they've always dreamed of."

Festival organizers have initiated a number of affordable opportunities to improve accessibility for working families. Children under the age of 12 are free and teenagers 13-17 years old are discounted. All tickets include free camping, free water filling stations, and all programming and workshops are free of charge throughout the weekend. The event also features a Mothers of Lucidity zone, a place to connect with a supportive network, relax, share knowledge, and even breastfeed.

FestX is a collaboration between XLive and Everfest, two leaders in the space of event production for industry-insiders and fans. "FestX brings the festival production industry together to learn and celebrate the culture built and sustained by our peers," said founder Waco Hoover. "We reward the visionaries, the people who make these shared visions a reality."

Lucidity Festival beat out a pool of outstanding events, including Austin City Limits, the Texas Renaissance Festival and last year's winner, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival. "Lucidity is the quintessential family-friendly festival," said Eamon Armstrong, who judged the competition. "The party atmosphere is still there for those without kids, but seeing adorable families at play always helps me see the world through the eyes of a child. And I personally find that everyone is a little more responsible in their partying when there are actual children around." Judges included Armstrong, host of the influential "Life is a Festival Podcast" and former creative director of Fest300/Everfest, entrepreneur Chip Conley, The Festival Owl, and leaders from Insomniac, Red Frog Productions, and Madison House Presents.

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