Dancing with skeletons New attractions at Boo at the Zoo By: AV Kitching Posted: 3:35 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023

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This article was published 11/10/2023 (1110 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The pumpkins have been carved, the hay bales are out and the skeletons are ready to rock ‘n’ roll as this year’s Boo at the Zoo kicks off the spooky season.

A witchy botanist, giant puppets and a fortune teller are among some of the new attractions at the annual event, which sees the Assiniboine Park location transformed into a frightfully fun kid-friendly zone with ghostly attractions, mysterious midway rides and ghastly games.

“My favourite new characters are the three giant puppets, which are between 15 to 20 feet tall,” says Joy Balmana of Assiniboine Park Zoo’s event team. “They are New Orleans Mardi-Gras-style puppets and they will be walking down the main drag of the zoo. One of the puppets we have is locally designed by a set designer and artist, Curtis Wiebe.”

It takes a team of 145 people to run the Halloween spectacular, with the bulk coming from volunteers whose duties include taking care of visitors and hosting games.

The route this year has been expanded to loop around almost the entire zoo. Visitor capacity has also been reduced by 15 per cent to keep the flow going.

Planning the event starts as soon as the previous one is over; putting the spectacle together takes around two months.

“There are times when we have to look ahead two or three years. We need to see what we have in supplies, what we need to get in and we also look at other similar programs,” Balmana explains.

“At the end of August and towards early September, visitors to the zoo will see some of the things that have been built in the back end rolled out.”

Madame Well the fortune teller and Iris the Witchy Botanist will make their debut at the event and the Skelly dance party is at a new location near the zoo’s whale skeleton.

For the first time, a park-and-ride trolley, complete with a mysterious conductor on board, has been organized for visitors parked in the overflow location at the old zoo entrance in the park.

The trolley will run on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 to 11.30 p.m., which are typically the event’s busiest evenings.

“Another new engagement we have this year is the ghost ball area, which really comes alive at night, with the lights and shadows all around them,” Balmana says. “We have swings in there where these ghostly creatures will be swinging back and forth and there are also some safe swings for the little ones.”

Dunker the Troll makes a reappearance in the forest, as do the fire dancers and aerialists, with performances taking place every half-hour.

Visitors are advised to plan ahead to make sure they get to watch the live performances; while there are no reservations as such, organizers promise no long waits between shows.

“With the new layout and the new route, when you enter the main gate until when you are passing by the first performance, the longest you may wait is about 15 minutes,” says Laura Cabak, Assiniboine Park’s director of communications. “The project manager has planned it so all the programmed performances are timed and there is a nice flow to your visit.”

Aerial performances are every half-hour, starting at 6.15 p.m. and ending at 9.45 p.m. Fire dancers, located at the entry to Aunt Sally’s Farm, are also every 30 minutes and start at 6.45 p.m., with the last performance taking place at 9.15 p.m. (except on Fridays and Saturdays, when there will be a 10 p.m. show).

A rotating roster of five bands is featured at the Big Tent from 7 to 10 p.m. during the week and until 11 p.m. on the weekend.

Cabak recommends allocating between 90 minutes to two hours for a visit, although she cautions that visitors may not be able to make it to every ride and performance in that time frame.

“Definitely take some time to plan ahead. Think about what rides are most important and make sure to use the downloadable map to plot out your visit,” she says.

av.kitching@winnipegfreepress.com