It was billed to be 'grand', with lots to see and do - a family fun day. On 25th June 2011, from 11am till 4pm, visitors could enjoy attractions including a bouncy castle, a face painter, side stalls (such as coconut shy, hook a duck and tin can alley), giant operation and jenga. That's on top of Edinburgh Dungeon personnel handing out goody bags and the chance of meeting Po - not the Tellytubby but the famous panda from Kung Fu Panda 2 (I expect Po was in the first film too). It all sounds very exciting doesn't it?
Lots of people must have thought it sounded exciting, because it was very busy at the zoo that day.
However, it wasn't quite as billed. Alternatively, maybe it was exactly as billed but maybe things were hidden. We went along (even though we don't have kids and 'family fun day' always smacks of needing kids) and were disappointed. There absolutely were side stalls - a coconut shy, a hook a duck stall and a tin can alley stall. There was also a small bouncy castle and a giant Operation.
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| Family fun day - a bouncy castle and three stalls |
There were two extra things; a giant buzz wire (you know where you trace a loop along a wire and if it touches it buzzes and you have to start again) and a Strongman 'Ring the bell' game - hit the target with a mallet and try to ring the bell at the top. The mallet was mainly strong foam for the head but very heavy otherwise, I saw small kids dragging it around because it was too heavy to lift by themselves. The 'ring the bell' game itself was set to be impossible to ring the bell (many capable men tried), which made it an attractive challenge to older teenagers - to show off. We saw three foreign youths thrash the thing until both the target pin was broke and the mallet splintered into pieces. There wasn't any staff around, apart from one on each of the stalls, so there was no-one to say anything - they replaced the broken mallet and sneaked off. Of course, the next child that came along presumed they broke it and started crying, probably thinking they would get into trouble.
I didn't see a face painter, or giant jenga, and I certainly didn't see a Panda named Po. I also didn't see anyone handing out Edinburgh Dungeon goody bags. I did contact them via Twitter afterwards to ask them about it and they said they were there but they were walking around and so must have missed me! The stalls, etc, I did see were up by the restaurant, not near the new entrance at all - which was what it was all supposed to be about, as far as I knew.
Nice idea, but just not done right.
News article about the day on Edinburgh Zoo webpage
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