A remarkable project that welcomes parents and children into the UK rave scene is coming to Kingston.
Big Fish, Little Fish was founded by Hannah Saunders in 2013.
For the last six years the project has grown UK dance music's appeal by pioneering "family raves" where top DJs play house, techno, drum and base and more for a family friendly audience including parents and their children of all ages.
Ms Saunders told the Comet she came up with the idea because she was a dance music fan and wanted to keep raving after becoming a mum.
"I didn't have any background in events management or music or anything but I was a music fan with young children and used to take my kids to festivals like Glastonbury.
"I could see that we were all having a really good time and enjoying it together and I just thought why don't we try and capture that feeling where we're all enjoying the environment and make a small event about it where families can enjoy these things together?" she said.
Since then, Big Fish Fish Little Fish have exploded onto the UK rave scene, proving a surprise hit with kids, parents and DJs alike and welcoming almost half a million ravers of all ages through its doors.
Massive artists like Basement Jaxx, Tom Middleton and Aphrodite have all played at Big Fish Little Fish events, while the grassroots start-up has received multiple awards and rave reviews in the UK media.
The hype can be expected to continue when the project arrives in Kingston, with acid house legend DJ Slipmatt in the headline slot.
"It's just a really lovely, joyous thing to experience really, the kids and parents are both loving it and the parents are often really surprised — they expect it to be like a children's party and then when we start they say 'Oh my goodness, you're actually playing really good music!" Ms Saunders said.
"It really struck a chord with people — we've had four generations raving with us previously. A grandmother came up to me once and told me she'd always wanted to go raving and now she has," the Big Fish Little Fish founder described.
Generally the raves involve a lot of colourful lighting, bubbles, balloons, foam machines and other activities like craft fair areas and baby chill-out spaces that capture the essence of a festival experience too.
Scheduled for late November, the Kingston Pryzm edition will also feature special Christmas-themed surprises, Ms Saunders said.
She described the massively popular nightclub as "absolutely magnificent" and revealed that Big Fish Little Fish's family rave would be the first ever time the club has run a family event.
"It's gorgeous and will be perfect for us with multiple levels and great lighting.
"We've got the godfather of UK rave DJ Slipmatt headlining plus our Big Fish Little Fish resident DJ and a local hero DJ too, plus snow machines, festive crafting. We're really excited for it," Ms Saunders said.
The Big Fish Little Fish Jingle Bell Ball is taking place at Pryzm in Kingston (154 Clarence Street) on November 30, 2-4.30pm.
Tickets are available from the bigfishlittlefishevents.com website.
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