I found this advert quite confusing last year as the rides in the picture promoting the event had nothing whatsoever to do with Blackpool. It was only today I realised what they actually meant was to bring some seaside fun into Warrington. As well as the rides they also had Punch and Judy, a small beach (indoors) promoted Donkey rides although i didnt see any but they did sell Blackpool Rock by the bucket load.
So what is this event all about then, basically its a travelling fairground, on the literature you get they promote it as a theme park although the absense of any theming would suggest otherwise, unless of course you take the theme of blackpool.
Anyway I took the family on the short journey to Warrington this afternoon. The event has free parking and is easy to find just of the A49 junction of the M62, opposite B&Q, parking is free and there is loads of it.
You enter through a marquee and are processed at a pay booth. ยฃ7.99 gets you a premuim (white knuckle) wristband and ยฃ4.99 a normal โkiddie oneโ, they also have a pensioners wristband which i think is about ยฃ3. You cannot enter the park and walk around without a wristband.
The marquee is pretty big inside with a number of catering trailers offering anything from steak sandwiches to burgers to corn on the cob, they also have a candy floss stall, an arcade and some seating โ its worth pointing out at this point the marquee is heated and quite comfortable, theres seating for about 20 people.
The marquee is the only way to enter and exit the fair. Ok lets take a look at the fair.
Expreience.
One of the first rides to great you when entering the fair is a KMG Experience ride, its quite difficult to explain so ill leave that to the ride manufacture.
The Experience is an attraction consisting of a rotating pole with three arms attached that are than raised upwards. At the end of each arm there is a smaller rotating hub with 2 gondolas that somersault.
It starts of quite mellow, then really gets going.
Freak out.
A huge swinging flat ride manufactured by KMG, the ride rotates a huge pendulum and swings back and forward through the ride station at a near 70 degree angle.
Orbiter.
You cant be far from vertical looking straight down at the floor when the ride is running at full speed.
Super Star
and then upside down.
Rock and Roll Dodgems.
The Twister.
The ride went on and on, i thought at one point there was a problem with the control system, i must have been at least 5 minutes.
Giant Fun House.
Dads can go in this too. the ride exit is through a curly slide on the right of the picture, I wasnt going to go down this. One dad who was quite a bit bigger than me laughed when his daughter said she wanted to go down the slide first as he would break it. ๐
A view from the funhouse looking at the rest of the fair.
There was quite a few rides for the younger kids too.
Crazy Mouse coaster.
Snow Patrol.
I found this a bit boring, just round and round. Grumpy old man mode now โ It had young kids smoking while it was going round, someone stood up and nearly everyone was taking pictures with mobile phones โ The ops should have done something about this, I suppose I was young once but i wouldnt have behaved like that. the world today ๐
The big wheel.
I could have stayed on this for ages, it felt very stable and gave some great views.
The M62.
The Miami
A few other things i didnt photograph. mini chair-o-planes, teacups and gravity wheel.
Side shows, quite a few on offer from darts to hook a duck. I was suprised to see goldfish offered as prizes to I thought this was outlawed years ago.
And finally I love the artwork on some of these travelling rides.
So is it worth going, well yes is the honest answer. We only stayed a couple of hours but my daughter got full use of her premium wristband (ยฃ7.99) as she went on everything.
We didnt buy any food but it looked good enough, toilets etc are all provided on site.
If you want to visit the fair its now open every day until the 25th February. Check the offical website for more information. Clicky
If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch [email protected] im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery
Thanks for Reading.