Busy times

Stall holder artist Robbie Graham

The Family Days have finally been and gone - four days of complete mayhem! We spent most of last week frantically preparing the site and getting everything ship-shape for the thousands of people soon to descend on us. This meant more painting, carting woodchip from one side of the site to the other to re-do stand-offs and dreaded marquees (Not the most enticing jobs when its 30 degrees outside! The variety of stall-holders made the heat worthwhile at least. Some amazing photographers and artists and noteable charities all involved.

Main shop in the big marquee

We had to kit out 3 shop outlets across the site, which involved carting cuddly toys, key-rings, bags and other such gift items across the site. This was a task that somehow took all day, but by the end of the day the shops were looking pretty good and full to the brim with stuff to buy. The heat inside the marquees was overwhelming, and I have no idea how the guys manning them would survive over the coming 4 days - but somehow they did! 

Jack the jungle cat

The Family Days themselves were a lot of fun. We all had our roles on the days - I was in charge of the area around pumas and jungle cat, so spent the night before frantically researching all I could about jungle cats. Unfortunately I didn't really get to put my new found knowledge to use as Jack our jungle cat spent most of the day in bed and avoided all visitors - typical. The days themselves were packed - we had around 2500 people on each of the four days, not including staff, volunteers, and stall holders and of course the roaming mascots: a bear and tiger costume character which all the cats found a little bit too interesting. 

All the money raised is going to the upkeep of the centre and the cats, so it was important to have a successful, popular day, and I think we did rather well. So a big thank you goes out to everyone that came and helped to make it a success. 

Open day visitors watching the lions (photo WHF facebook)