Bach to Baby Reviews 47

We really enjoyed the concert i came with my 4 years old by the end he was a bit too tired not much interaction although
Baby ?hmmm i would rather say 2 years and over probably up to 5 but depends on child Overall we enjoyed the concert and atmosphere Musicians were great and we love especially flute Great christmas spirit as a start of christmas holiday fun .Slightly pricey but i took 2 children so it is £5.00 per person Anyway always good to see something new

Not geared towards toddlers. Falsely advertised, couldn’t be further from fiesta vibes. Let the kids enjoy it at least, be slightly more interactive / engaging.
Such a load of nonsense and massively over priced

We attended the performance on the 15th June. It has a potential to be fun. The acoustics was good (as was held in a church ).
What was disappointing is attitude to customers. We were really late because of a road accident in front of us and came 10 min before the end. The organisers refused to extend our tickets to a later concert in Oxford. For £17 per adult I would expect the event to be more customer accommodating.

We really couldn’t hear any of the introductions, even though we were reasonably near the front. The sound system was totally unfit for the job. The music was good but for £15 per adult it was poor value for money for a 35 minute event (it started late and finished early). There was little attempt to engage with the children.

It's not terrible, and the music itself was lovely unfortunately we could barely hear it. It could of done with either being a smaller room with less people, or a bigger room with more echo, or else just louder/amplified instruments because often the low hum of the cello was drowned out by screaming toddlers. The event itself felt a bit confused and unsure of itself, it sort of mixed low sincere classic music, with jolly carol singing, with what eventually became a free roaming crêche. For the price of tickets (£15 per adult) it can quickly become expensive and the experience is not very personalised. Rather than being in a church with pews etc it would be nice in a cosier set up like a community hall, where chairs could be set up in a circle around the performers and children encouraged to sit on the floor. Engagement with the children could be better structured. Perhaps discouraging them from running around till the end would make it easier to hear what's happening, as having some parts with them jumping and others not seemed to just result in confusion and many children just jumping around even when they weren't supposed to. Unfortunately smaller babies like ours miss out because, in not being able to run around like the bigger kids, all you can really do is hold them and hope that they're hearing at least a little bit of the music. We might come back one more time when he is a few years older, but definitely hope that B2B take on board some parental feedback as the concept is wonderful, has so much potential, but just needs to be worked on. Is the music there to be enjoyed, or is it just background noise? Are the children supposed to interact or just run around screaming? Is this for the adults or for the children? Is it jolly or serious? Tone and level of audience engagement are a bit all over the place and makes it all feel impersonal and overpriced.

Website misrepresented what we were to expect for the £15 per adult ticket. Very exploitative and extortionate for a 30 minute concert.

Child was ready to sit still and listen to concert but rather than get going with an immersive musical experience they filled the time with intro chatter which couldn’t be heard at the back and totally useless for non-verbal babies.

Wording as advertised:
“Tots dance, roam about and revel in the wonder of live music, while you take a moment out of your busy day to hear top notch performances by outstanding musicians, with your young babes in tow.”

This made it sound like children would be free to “dance”, “roam” and “revel”. Even with social distancing measures in place this was not possible mainly due to the inappropriate choice of venue (a church lined with pews rather than a more open plan church space that we are used to having other baby groups held in).

Felt like an absolute mug sitting there for £30 for both of us and our toddler.

What a scam.

Our experience with these concerts during covid times was very disappointing. The venue (a long church lined with pews) didn't allow our little one to see anything from the pew we were sat in. Children were allowed to move around but there wasn't enough room to approach the stage without breaking the distancing rules, so there's not much hope of seeing the music unless you get there early enough for a front row seat.

Overall the experience for most of the kids was just like sitting in a church service -- some music and talking going on in the distance that they can't see or necessarily hear terribly well, most stay in the pews with some toddlers exploring the aisles and the back of the church.

The concert was quite short (felt like 30mins?), a few brief piano pieces played on an old church piano some distance away, without much of a programme specified in advance. Fair enough it is primarily for the babies and toddlers who have short attention spans, and for £5 a ticket in a venue where they could see what's going on I wouldn't be complaining.

At £15 for a (non-refundable!) ticket though, this feels like a cynical cash-grab from middle-class parents desperate for some enriching activities after months of lockdown. Based on previous good reviews I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they just haven't fully thought through how much the covid restrictions would affect people's experience. But would definitely advise to steer clear until the covid restrictions are lifted, and pay close attention to the choice of venue and the programme before paying for tickets.