A Magical Evening at Enchanted Parks

December 13, 2015 by Rachel Kershaw in Days Out 4

In a recent post I told you how much I was looking forward to visiting Enchanted Parks, part of the NewcastleGateshead Winter Festival. Well, I’m pleased to report, it did not disappoint!

It’s been very cold in Geordieland over the last few days and we’ve even had a downpour of snow, which despite making everything look extremely Christmassy, has caused a bit of disruption. Thankfully, our evening outing was able to go ahead as planned on Friday. We wrapped ourselves up in our snuggliest coats, hats, scarves and gloves, pulled on our winter boots and made our way over to Saltwell Park in Gateshead.

After a couple of wrong turns we finally arrived and joined the excited throngs of people making their way through the stage curtain and in to the blackness of the park.

Our path was cleverly lit by a trail of pretty lights and we soon encountered clues to this years theme… Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland! Perhaps it was Alice’s popularity that led to Enchanted Parks 2015 being a complete sell out with 23,000 tickets sold!

My niece and nephew thought they were in a magic forest and despite some initial confusion as to why Santa wasn’t there and a little bit of apprehension when faced with the Cheshire Cat, I think it’s safe to say they had as much fun as us grown ups.

Their favourite part seemed to be the house of magic mirrors which had a separate entrance for little ones. We also enjoyed donning our 3D glasses for an interactive installation on the bridge.

Saltwell Towers looked beautiful bathed in pink and purple lights, as well as providing a practical pit stop for refreshments and toilets.

We spent over an hour wandering through the maze of mesmerising installations and were lucky enough to avoid the rain and snow. It really was a magical evening, perfectly rounded off with a chippy tea!

Note to self – really must take a night time photography course, these pics are no where near good enough to do the event justice!