Celebrating 25 years of the Young Carers Festival

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Young Carers Festival. That’s 25 years of running the largest festival in the world for young people with caring responsibilities that often don’t get the recognition they deserve. Anya has worked with us for over a decade, first supporting young carers and now as member of the Youth Voice team. Here she talks about the young people who attend the festival, the challenges they face in their day-to-day lives and how important the festival is to them. She brings the festival to life and takes us behind the scenes of what it takes to run an event like this.

20 June 2025

Girl with face paint in the young carers festival crowd

Humble beginnings

Since the year 2000, thousands of young carers have gathered at YMCA Fairthorne Manor in the Hampshire countryside for a weekend of music, food and pure joy. Set within 95 acres of land with plenty of green space for camping, woodlands, an enclosed lake and access to the River Hamble, the Young Carers Festival (YCF) is the largest gathering of young carers in the world.

Anya believes that for those who attend the festival, it’s a hugely important part of their lives. It’s estimated that there are around one million young carers in the UK, a huge number of young people who are often overlooked by the government and hidden from public perception.

Anya explains “A young carer is a young person who is caring for a family member due to disability, illness, mental health or substance misuse. They come to the festival through their young carers group or with a school support group and their workers who look after them for the weekend."

It can be full on for young carers and it’s a lot for them to process.

“Often their own mental health suffers as a result because they're putting a lot of their time and energy into the cared for person and so their needs come secondary to that. At The Children’s Society that’s been our focus over the years, especially with the festival, making a space where they can just be themselves.”

Hidden realities

“I think what's special about the festival is that there are so many untold stories. And there's just a level of understanding that all young people come to the festival with back stories. They're all young carers, they're all going to be caring for a family member for a specific reason, varying reasons, various hours in the week, various levels of impact.

“At the festival we don't ask about their background stories. We don't ask why they care, what they have to do, who they care for.”

We let them simply be for the weekend.

girls on a rollercoaster at the young carers festival

As well as being space for young carers to unwind, make connections and try new things, the Young Carers Festival is also a political platform for them to be heard and influence change.

“We have our Voice Zone tent which I've been responsible for managing over the years. It's a space where young carers can come and share their experiences and ideas and views if they want to. It's all on their terms so they don't have to share. They can share as much or as little as they want to, and we hear about the challenges they face in that space relating to the theme we focus on each year.”

More than a festival

For a young carer attending the festival, it is one weekend in the year for them to press pause on the demands of their responsibilities, but it isn’t just a festival, it isn’t just a weekend, it is a place where they can feel like a young person, feel free from their responsibilities, and the benefits of that can be far reaching.

When Anya speaks about the Young Carers Festival you can hear in her voice how passionate she is about it. How unique and wonderful she thinks it is. When she describes the mud and sun, the hundreds of tents, the fairground rides, the arts and crafts, the music and the silent disco she makes you want to be there.

“It’s such an inspiring and motivational place to be. It’s basically the best weekend ever.”