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The Enchantment of Chester Zoo puts Chester Zoo together with the pioneering experts at Wild Rumpus – architects of the award winning Just So family arts festival.

We visited yesterday and we  LOVED this event as we are huge fans of Chester Zoo, being members for 5 years and complete Just So Festival and Lost Carnival converts.

The concept is simple

An evil sorcerer is casting a spell on Chester Zoo, trying to steal the super powers of nocturnal animals. Visitors this Halloween will have until dusk to break the spell.

From 22 – 31 October, families at the zoo will meet a cavalcade of curious animal characters with incredible skills – from wise old owls to acrobatic spiders!

Once you arrive at Chester Zoo you are given a map and you need to make your way over to the Enchantment Garden at your allotted time slot.  You ideally will want to do this early in your visit as you have challenges to undertake and they take you across the zoo. Tired children won’t want to wander round Chester Zoo twice – it’s huge!

In the Enchantment Garden visitors are introduced to the story by the owls who play music and inform you about the mysterious goings on:

You then move on through the garden and they introduce you to the spiders (genuinely scary to the younger ones!) and I heard a few cry:

then the acrobatic bats:

before finally telling you about the challenges they need you to undertake as you meet the real life nocturnal animals in the dark fruit bat forest, search for the nocturnal aye-ayes in their shadowy habitat and discover the magnificent Montserrat tarantula. All whilst collecting potion to ‘save’ Chester Zoo! Mine loved the idea of being given a test tube with potion in as you can see!

 

At this time of year Chester Zoo is a real treat, particularly on a cold but dry Autumn day like yesterday.  The Zoo feels empty as you wander around and there simply aren’t the queues you can experience in the Summer.  Whilst not on our list of challenges we had to make time to see the Meerkat the school have adopted and a very understanding keeper, showed the girls ‘their school Meerkat’ helpfully sitting high on a post.

We ended our time at the Zoo pouring our potion into the pot to help save the Zoo.

and then received thank you certificates for all our help!

The Enchantment of Chester Zoo runs 10am – 2pm each day from 22 – 31 October 2016 and is free with zoo entry, but booking is advised to guarantee a place in the Enchantment Garden.

If you have been wowed by the Christmas Lantern event at Chester Zoo, then maybe now is time to visit at Halloween.  Tickets for the Chester Zoo Lantern Festival are on sale now too!

NB: We were invited to Chester Zoo by Wild Rumpus to experience The Enchantment of Chester Zoo but all views and opinions are our own.

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