WINTERLAND MARGATE IS COMING TO DREAMLAND

BY GABRIELLE

A festive extravaganza will be taking place at Dreamland this December with the arrival of the Winterland event.

This festival show invites guests to enjoy special Christmas rides, attractions and other activities, including a new grotto experience, designed entertain guests of all ages during the Christmas season.

Visitors can enjoy meandering round a winter market serving seasonal food and drinks, experiencing fairy light walks, festive film screenings, yuletide crafts, wreath making, Christmas trees and more.

A series of festive rides will also be installed at Dreamland, including Gallopers, Double Decker, Speedway, Austin Cars and Chair-O-Plane.

Another highlight of Winterland will be a giant Snow Globe, which visitors can climb inside and explore.

Dogs are also welcome at the Margate amusement park this December with a special Santa Paws events put on for dogs.

A Roller Disco will provide further entertainment, where guests can put on their rollerblades and skate to Xmas classics on the dancefloor.

A number of activities will be on offer in the 1-hour Santa’s Grotto experience, including making all-natural reindeer food to take home for Christmas Eve, visiting Santa’s Elves in their workshop and helping them make snow, meeting Father Christmas, and numerous fun and festive photo opportunities.

Eddie Kemsley, Dreamland’s CEO, commented: “We are rounding off our best year ever at Dreamland with our best ever Christmas experience. 2019 has been an incredible year for us already, and we want to give people an amazing festive experience that the whole family can enjoy again and again.

“We delighted to offer Kent residents even more choice of festive fun in December, see you at the Grotto!” Kemsley added.

Winterland Margate will be open on December 7, 8, 14 and 15 and then daily from December 21 to 31, excluding Christmas Day.

DREAMLAND MARGATE ENJOYS RECORD BREAKING YEAR

 BY GABRIELLE

Dreamland, the popular amusement park in Margate, attracted more than 650,000 visitors in 2019, in what was its busiest year since reopening.

By mid-August, the amusement park surpassed half a million visitors. Guest numbers continued to escalate over the bank holiday weekend.

From the park opening for the start of the 2019 season until September 2, around 650,000 guests visited Dreamland, more than twice as much compared to any previous year.

In April, the amusement park announced it would waiver its old £5 entry fee and would be free to enter.

Guests are now able to pay per ride or join as members and buy discounted wristbands online in advance.

Over Easter, when the park opened for the year, Dreamland broke all previous visitor number records, with more than 15,000 people attending the park on Easter Sunday for the Camp Bestival takeover, a 97% increase in visitor numbers overall during the Easter break on 2018.

Eddie Kemsley was made CEO of Dreamland in January 2019, appointed to oversee the new direction of the park.

“Dreamland is having its busiest year since it reopened four years ago, it’s a staggering achievement by the whole team. The results surpassed even our own high expectations. We’re particularly pleased that numbers are spread across the year, with healthy numbers visiting in the quieter ‘off peak’ months too – which is great news for Margate tourism,” Kemsley commented.

“We’ve absorbed to a lot of customer feedback from years gone by,and took a new direction with our entertainment and visitor offer this year. With the Camp Bestival Easter park takeover leading the way, we chose to build on our ‘all the fun of the festival’ moniker and create more regular, varied content that would give families a full programme of Dreamland branded events to enjoy.

“We also increased our food offer on the park, with great new street food stalls, vegan options, and a new restaurant on site in Café Barletta.

“The entire Dreamland team has put a lot of time and effort into getting our 2019 offer right for visitors. Operations have gone very smoothly, and our fantastic entertainments team keep the party going everyday on park.

“We have some big plans ahead for autumn, Christmas and – of course – our centenary year in 2020, but we’re certainly in high spirits down by the sea this summer,” Kemsley added.