If a child was bitten by a dog at a festival:

1) Where was the dog's owner and doing what?
2) what was the child doing? either to the dog, or just generally(where were its parents, too!)

Children need training at festivals just as much as dogs, and also about dogs generally. One unfortunate habit is that small children will stare straight into a dog's eyes, and this is a threat in dog language. Both species need to learn how to cope with this if they're going to cohabit.

I'm not condoning a loose/uncontrolled dog situation, that was obviously the primary problem. The owner should at least have been told not to bring it again, or maybe even be removed and banned.

I took small children (5 & 6 the first time) to Cambridge Folk Festival amongst others, where they learnt (fast) how to behave sensibly in a crowd of potentially drunken adults (the Pogues barmy army on one occasion), how to find a parent or friend quickly at need, and how not to attract attention to themselves, before they were set loose. Once trained (about an hour) they greatly enjoyed the freedom of a closed site festival.

I now have two (very) large dogs who would not be welcome in a small festival, so they go to a dog hotel if necessary. I would still like children to meet them in a controlled situation because they are friendly creatures and I think dogs are good for children.

I appreciate that not everyone likes to have 50kg of dog put its paws on their shoulders and lick their face, exposing a set of teeth which do credit to a small shark, so I try and train them to only do it to us.

Paws (trying to type with a wolfhound peering over one shoulder)