Fun day was a roaring success

The fantastic creatures were part of the annual Wordpool festival’s family fun day at the park, which brought hundreds of youngsters and their parents out to play.

Making the most of the sunny afternoon, the Story Safari featured around 20 activities, from the roaming managerie, to craft sessions and a pop-up library.

Clancy Mason, reader development manager for Blackpool Library Service, said the event had been a great success.

“It’s hard to pick out highlights when you have about 20 different activities and performances going on,” she said. “But the dinosaur was a huge hit, as was the bubble breathing, jelly roller dragon, and craft activities from the Blackpool Museum project and the Grand Theatre’s The Tiger Who Came To Tea mask making - there lots of children running around in their masks.

“We couldn’t do it without the help of the Friends Of Stanley Park and all our volunteers, which makes it a real community focused event to celebrate words.”

Michael Brooke, from Bispham, attended with son Declan. He said: “I wasn’t sure how it was going to be because the weather was quite unsettled in the morning.

“We were more interested in the practical activities than the performances, so we concentrated on making the tiger’s mask on the Grand Theatre’s stall, and crafting our own books on the grass near the rose garden. We spent a couple of hours wandering the park and really enjoyed ourselves.”

The free funday brought to a close the ninth Wordpool festival of arts and literature, after three days of events at Central Library which focused on author talks for adult readers.