Tag Archive: social distancing

1. The First ‘Social Distanced’ Summer Entertainment Workshop at Doncaster Lakeside Shopping Centre was a huge hit!

   3rd August 2020 5:00 pm Leave a Comment

   The Brief

   We had the pleasure of creating a Summer Event and Entertainment programme for Doncaster Lakeside throughout August 2020. This popular and well-established Shopping Centre sought out our help in creating amazing, interactive and above all fun entertainment options that visitors could enjoy whilst shopping. In particular, the centre wanted children to have the opportunity to have fun and interact with each other in a safe environment whilst maintaining social distancing!

   As we all know, the coronavirus has caused a storm throughout the world and ‘social distancing’ has quickly become the new norm. Because of this, Doncaster Shopping Centre wanted to help prepare children for when they go back to school and have to interact with each other at a distance, in order to remain safe. Their aim was to prove that you can still have fun whilst being 2 metres apart!

   The first event on our entertainment programme was to bring The Trolls to Doncaster Lakeside! Due to the new Trolls World Tour movie that was released earlier this year, we knew this theme would be a huge hit with children and child-like adults alike.

   The Challenges

   The main challenge we had when putting together this Trolls themed weekend was creating entertainment that was not only fun, interactive, and unique but also safe and honoured the ‘social distancing’ guidelines. We constantly asked ourselves ‘what can we do to engage and capture visitors’ attention and attract them to the shopping centre all whilst staying safe and maintaining 2 metres apart?’ It was a hard concept to execute, however here at Big Foot Events, we are well known for our ability to adapt and improvise and adhere to even the most challenging of briefs.  With this in mind,  we knew that we would be able to overcome any issues and put together an amazing Trolls themed weekend that not only brought a lot of attention to the shopping centre, but also had children amazed, engaged and entertained (social distanced of course)!

   The Solutions

   In order to overcome any safety issues and abide by the current ‘social distancing’ law, we restricted The Trolls Meet and Greet to a limited number of people per session. This way, we could make sure visitors remained 2 metres apart and that each visitor got the opportunity to safely interact with our fantastic Trolls! This first event, that took place on Saturday 1^st August 2020, was simple yet crowd-pleasing. It captured visitors’ attention and kept them in the shopping centre, as well as gave children their first experience interacting with other children in a small space, whilst social distancing. We all know children find it hard not to touch each other when playing. We ensured that the event would be a quick and easy set-up and did not need a large team of people to set up the event – therefore keeping social interaction to a minimum. We ensured all staff were coronavirus free and kept sanitised at all times.

   The Results

   We were extremely thankful that we had the weather on our side as it was glorious sunshine on the day of the Trolls Workshop weekend! Our interactive, cheeky Trolls truly glistened and shined in the sunlight and their bright colours caught the attention of visitors as soon as they entered the Shopping Centre. We knew children – and Troll enthusiasts – would still be on a high from the newly released Trolls movie, and this was confirmed when their faces lit up with excitement when they saw the Trolls mischievously walking around the Shopping Centre.

   As you can see from the picture below, our Trolls were extremely eye-catching, and immediately lit up the centre with their happy-as-Larry personalities. It was fantastic to see little children, as well as adults, wanting to take a picture with the beautiful beasts. We had a giant marquee behind the trolls, as well as friendly staff in order to maintain crowd control and keep visitors at a safe distance from each other. It was fascinating to see children excitedly communicate with each other through looks, hand gestures and of course through talking whilst maintaining social distancing! In fact, they were so captivated by the Trolls that they didn’t even seem to mind that they had to stay 2 metres apart from each other.

   

   Overall, the first ‘socially distanced’ Summer entertainment workshop at Doncaster Lakeside was a huge success and we had people instantly signing up to the next workshop taking place the following week.

   We cannot wait to see how our ‘Greatest Showman’ themed weekend turns out! Keep updated on our website and Social Media platforms for more ‘Socially Distanced’ entertainment!

2. Queue Busters!

   13th May 2020 2:17 pm Leave a Comment

   If there is one thing we have learnt to do during this pandemic, it’s queue. That’s right, due to the ‘social distancing’ safety measure of keeping two metres apart from anyone at any given time, it has severely impacted people’s experience when shopping or visiting any type of Retail store or even any public place. The wait times to gain access to those chosen Retail stores and public places can be so excessive that it discourages peoples who want to visit. That’s why we have come up with a solution for businesses to attract people to their store, all whilst encouraging responsible social distancing.

   In order to keep visitors interested and willing to wait to get into your store, you need to make their queuing experience more fun and enjoyable! You read correctly; we’re talking about adding excitement to the queuing process of the shopping experience with ‘interesting distancing’ – otherwise known as hiring our range of eye-catching, captivating and interactive street performers to entertain people whilst they wait in line.

   Don’t be bored, boogie!

   

   There is nothing like music to help pass the time, and let’s face it, nothing brings people together and puts a smile on their faces more than a sing song and a dance. With our range of fantastic musical entertainers, you can keep visitors occupied, entertained and more importantly happy whilst standing in line. From a weird but wonderful five-piece stilt walking 1920s band, a lively, energetic and captivating mariachi band, an incredible classically trained string quartet and many, many more. We guarantee that our street performers will lift the spirits of everyone around!

   Creature Feature

   

   Did someone say ROAR? Go wild with our fascinating wild animals and state of the art, interactive, giant, smoke-breathing dragons and incredibly realistic dinosaurs. Guaranteed to take people’s attention away from the excruciating long queue, our range of exotic animals will provide visitors with a wonderful wildlife experience! It will be the only time you can say you nipped out for a pint of milk and ran into ‘Dreygo the Dragon’ doing his daily exercise.

   It’s a fantasy

   

   No, you haven’t accidentally stepped into one of your favourite fictional stories, it’s just our range of fabulous and famous Fairy-tale characters and fantastic creatures that you’re seeing entertaining your visitors as they patiently wait in line to enter your store. Gargoyles, Wizards, Witches and even Mermaids, Fairies and Pirates will WOW people with their incredible live theatre performances and bring a real buzz to your store.

   Make em’ Laugh

   

   They say laughter is the best medicine, so cure the boredom and frustration that comes with queuing up with some comical characters and crazy antics. Nothing screams crazy than a nun on a piano strolling down the street singing at the top of his lungs, and nothing screams comical than a very boisterous and mischievous mime mimicking your every move. Our range of hilarious comedians, street performers and entertainers will definitely keep the laughter flowing!

   The Circus is in town

   

   Roll up. Roll up to the greatest queue in the world! We’re talking Stilt Walkers, Fire Breathers, Fire Eaters, Acrobats, Clowns and many, many more weird and wacky street performers and circus acts that are all waiting in line to entertain your visitors. We guarantee that our circus entertainers will distract visitors from queuing up in a long line with their unconventional tricks and mind-blowing performances.

   We know it’s important to keep a distance, so queuing up to enter any retail store or public space for a long period of time will be the new normal for a while, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a dull experience! Keep things interesting for your visitors with our fantastic range of street performers, entertainers and acts – you could even use them to raise money for charity or to gain new business exposure.

   If you would like to know more or to book any of the acts mentioned above then give one of our friendly team a call on 01253 251 100.