Picnic in the Park
Join us in Melbourne Park from Monday 27 to Friday 31 July for free family fun.
Play in the Park Facebook page
Sadly, we have lost access to our Play in the Park page on Facebook, so you should not rely on any information published there. Instead, you can find the latest information on this website or follow our Facebook page for Community Sport and Wellbeing.
Play in the Park
Play in the Park (PitP) is a series of free, two-hour multi-activity sessions run for children at community and parish venues during the Easter and summer holidays.
Play in the Park runs at multiple community venues during the Easter and summer school holidays, for children aged between three and 11.
Children can join our playworkers to play, create and take part in fun sports, games and craft activities at a park near you. Some sessions also feature additional activities such as inflatables or parkour.
Sessions are suitable for everyone, including those with accessible needs. Please call our team on 01245 606569 if you need any further information.
You can view a list of all our upcoming summer dates, and you can click on the venue name for location details. You can also search and filter the list by area or date.
Places for the sand art and slime making sessions are limited to 100 places. We will issues tickets for these activities at the registration desk on a first come, first served basis.
Morning sessions run from 10am to 12pm and afternoon sessions run from 1pm to 3pm.
Dawson Memorial Field
- Venue
- Dawson Memorial Field
- Area
- Danbury
- Date
- Monday 17 August
- Sessions
- AM only
- Extras
- Large inflatable slide with 1st2Bounce
Great Leighs Village Green
- Area
- Great Leighs
- Date
- Monday 17 August
- Sessions
- AM and PM
- Extras
- Inflatable pirate galleon with 1st2Bounce
Saltcoats Park
- Venue
- Saltcoats Park
- Area
- South Woodham Ferrers
- Date
- Tuesday 18 August
- Sessions
- AM and PM
- Extras
- Dragonball with Dragonball Sport Ltd (both sessions)
Nursery Playing Field
- Venue
- Nursery Playing Field
- Area
- South Hanningfield
- Date
- Tuesday 18 August
- Sessions
- AM only
- Extras
- Inflatable kids kingdom with 1st2Bounce
Melbourne Park
- Venue
- Melbourne Park
- Area
- Central Chelmsford
- Date
- Wednesday 19 August
- Sessions
- AM and PM
- Extras
- Balloon workshop with Mister B (morning only); inflatable helter skelter with 1st2Bounce (both sessions)
East Hanningfield Village Hall
- Area
- East Hanningfield
- Date
- Wednesday 19 August
- Sessions
- AM only
- Extras
- Mobile zoo experience with Animal Workshops
Great Leighs Village Green
- Area
- Great Leighs
- Date
- Thursday 20 August
- Sessions
- AM and PM
- Extras
- Smoothie bike (both sessions)
Great Baddow Recreation Ground
- Area
- Great Baddow
- Date
- Thursday 20 August
- Sessions
- AM and PM
- Extras
- Inflatable disco dome with 1st2Bounce (both sessions)
Hylands Park
- Venue
- Hylands Park
- Area
- Writtle
- Date
- Friday 21 August
- Sessions
- AM and PM
- Extras
- Parkour with Team Kinetix (both sessions); mobile zoo with Animal Workshops (morning only)
Central Park
- Venue
- Central Park
- Area
- Central Chelmsford
- Date
- Friday 21 August
- Sessions
- AM and PM
- Extras
- Two hour party with Mister B; Dragonball with Dragonball Sports Ltd (both available at both sessions)
| Venue | Area | Date | Sessions | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dawson Memorial Field | Danbury | Monday 17 August | AM only | Large inflatable slide with 1st2Bounce |
| Great Leighs Village Green | Great Leighs | Monday 17 August | AM and PM | Inflatable pirate galleon with 1st2Bounce |
| Saltcoats Park | South Woodham Ferrers | Tuesday 18 August | AM and PM | Dragonball with Dragonball Sport Ltd (both sessions) |
| Nursery Playing Field | South Hanningfield | Tuesday 18 August | AM only | Inflatable kids kingdom with 1st2Bounce |
| Melbourne Park | Central Chelmsford | Wednesday 19 August | AM and PM | Balloon workshop with Mister B (morning only); inflatable helter skelter with 1st2Bounce (both sessions) |
| East Hanningfield Village Hall | East Hanningfield | Wednesday 19 August | AM only | Mobile zoo experience with Animal Workshops |
| Great Leighs Village Green | Great Leighs | Thursday 20 August | AM and PM | Smoothie bike (both sessions) |
| Great Baddow Recreation Ground | Great Baddow | Thursday 20 August | AM and PM | Inflatable disco dome with 1st2Bounce (both sessions) |
| Hylands Park | Writtle | Friday 21 August | AM and PM | Parkour with Team Kinetix (both sessions); mobile zoo with Animal Workshops (morning only) |
| Central Park | Central Chelmsford | Friday 21 August | AM and PM | Two hour party with Mister B; Dragonball with Dragonball Sports Ltd (both available at both sessions) |
- To guarantee your space, you must book your free tickets in advance.
- If you arrive at a session without booking, we may have to turn you away if there are no spaces.
- There will be a maximum of 300 children in each session.
- Spaces for each session are on a first-come-first-served basis.
All children must be supervised (within the park / venue grounds) by a responsible adult, parent or guardian throughout the whole session. This is to ensure the safety of all children at our sessions.
We will not be responsible for any child who attends or is left at a session on their own.
You must only book the sessions that you are definitely planning to attend. We have plenty of capacity and are very rarely fully booked. You can book a session on the day if you wish.
If you do have to cancel your booking, you should do this at least 24 hours in advance. If you cancel after this time, or do not show up for a Play in the Park session that you have booked, we reserve the right to remove any future bookings you have made and ultimately block your access to the booking system.
You can cancel your booking by contacting us via TicketSource or by emailing playinthepark@chelmsford.gov.uk
- You cannot drop your child off and leave them at the session unattended. A responsible adult, parent or guardian has to stay with your child.
- You need to book tickets for any children attending, but you do not need to book any adult tickets.
- Some (but not all) sessions will have extra activities available also for free. You don't need to book these activities, but some may have a capacity limit, so we recommend you arrive early to grab a space.
