Lancaster BID was delighted by the roaring success of Dino Fest at the weekend. The festival saw thousands of dinosaur lovers of all ages enjoying the fun in Lancaster city centre.
Since the first event in 2017, Dino Day has been one of the biggest and most popular events in the calendar for Lancaster city centre. This year, Lancaster BID teamed up with Lancaster City Museum to make the event even bigger and better spanning a whole weekend.
This partnership helped to secure funding from The Royal Society to add some amazing additions to the line up for 2022. Expert palaeontologists and authors, Dr Dean Lomax and Dr Jeremy Lockwood, impressed audiences with their talks about their amazing dinosaur discoveries. Visitors to the Lancaster City Museum could also get hands on with real fossils – including dinosaur poo – from the Isle of Wight Dinosaur Museum with experts on hand to answer any questions.
Lancaster BID also partnered with Three Left Feet to offer guided tours led by ‘Richard Owen’ taking in his links to Lancaster which went on to him coining the word Dinosaur.
Also new for this year were the Dino Dig where budding dinosaur hunters could unearth fossils in the sand and a soft play including a Rodeo Raptor ride. This was added to all the old favourites including fairground rides, Dino Poop in Judges’ Lodgings, Face painting and, of course, the dinosaurs.
The main event on the Sunday saw ‘Tank’ the Triceratops, ‘Zeus’ the T-Rex, ‘Spence’ the Spinosaurus and ‘Ritchie’ the Raptor return to the city centre by popular demand. This year they were also joined by ‘Emily Bronty’ the Brontosaurus making her debut in Lancaster.
Tony Johnson, Lancaster BID Manager said ‘The event certainly drew in the crowds with the city streets thronging with people all weekend. During the main event on Sunday, footfall showed an increase of 27.8% over the previous weekend. Seeing the delight on so many children’s faces certainly made all the hard work which goes into organising the event worthwhile.’
‘Lancaster BID would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who visited and all the partners who helped make the weekend such as success. Particular thanks go to Dino Fest sponsors, Stagecoach, and The Royal Society and Lancaster City Council for helping with the funding.’
Feedback from visitors has also been outstanding with one visitor saying ‘We have attended every Dino Day since it started and by far this was the best.’
Plans are already being discussed and Lancaster BID looks forward to bringing the event back to the city centre again in 2023.
