Dinosaurs brought huge crowds into Lancaster city centre for a roaring success of a festival.
Thousands of visitors came into the city from far and wide for Dino Fest from as far afield as Doncaster, North Yorkshire, Lake District, Cheshire and Bolton.
Organisers Lancaster BID (Business Improvement District) said the event brought an economic boost to the city with 85 per cent of visitors responding to a survey indicating they spent £10 or more in the city during their visit.
Sixty five per cent of responders had visited hospitality venues in the city centre whilst 47 per cent had shopped with independent retailers.
Eight two per cent gave Dino Fest a mark of eight or above out of 10. Almost half these gave the maximum 10 out of 10 rating the event as ‘outstanding’ and a huge 95 per cent said they would either ‘probably’ of ‘definitely’ recommend the event to friends.
It’s certainly not every day you’ll meet a T-Rex on Penny Street or cross paths with a Raptor in Marketgate Shopping Centre or St Nic’s Arcade and there were certainly a few surprised shoppers amongst the hordes of enchanted families!
Dinomania, Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalists from 2022, were one of Saturday’s favourite attractions with their action-packed shows in Dalton Square, workshops at The Dukes and mobile museum in Lancaster Library.
They had a range of more than 150 real and replica fossils including a life size replica T-Rex skull outside in Market Square.
Sunday then saw the return of some Dino Fest regulars including Zeus the giant T-Rex and Emily Bronty the Brontosaurus.
Alongside the main dinosaur attractions, there were several opportunities to meet top experts to learn about fossils and hear what it takes to become a top palaeontologist.
Dr Dean Lomax enthralled the audience with tales from his worldwide fossil hunting adventures during his talk at The Dukes whilst the team from the Isle of Wight’s Dino Isle Museum brought real dinosaur fossils for visitors to handle and learn all about.
Experts from Fossils In T’Hills were also on hand to explain about inland fossils found in the local area and ask children for help reconstructing an ancient coral reef from pasta!
"It was fantastic to see so many businesses across the city centre joining in with Dino Fest," said Tom Fyson, operations manager at Lancaster BID.
"Alongside the outdoor dinosaur shows, we had activities taking places in both shopping centres, Lancaster City Museum, Judges Lodgings, Lancaster Library and The Dukes. All locations reported huge boosts in footfall with one of the museums reporting more than five-fold increase in visitor numbers compared to the previous weekend."
The event was designed to build on Lancaster’s historic links as the home of Sir Richard Owen, the man who grew up in the city and first invented the word ‘dinosaur’. ]
In the lead up to Dino Fest, the Lancaster BID team invited almost 600 pupils from local primary schools into the city to join in with Dino Workshops and take part in tours of the city led by actors in role as Sir Richard Owen himself.
A Dino Trial saw beautifully hand painted dinosaurs to the windows of businesses throughout the city centre. These remain in place until Sunday 16th July, so you still have time to enter the prize draw if you’ve not found them all yet!
If you came to Dino Fest, make sure you have given feedback by completing the visitor survey here. The Lancaster BID team are already planning ahead for Dino Fest 2024 so make sure you let them know what you want to see more of.
The event was sponsored by Stagecoach and supported by Lancashire County Council, through the Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund. The BID thanked all the businesses and individuals who pledged to their Crowdfunding campaign to secure full funding for the event.
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