Penguins, Pimms, playparks. Just your average Friday night, right?
Last
night Edinburgh Zoo opened their doors to flocks of excitable grownups for
their first EZNight of the year. Edinburgh Zoo Nights are pretty much what it
says on the tin - except hoards of children are replaced by excitable adults bopping
away in the silent disco tent, queuing to get their faces painted and clutching
cocktails and street food.
There are
animal talks galore, the zoo inhabitants are, for the most part, still up and
about, and there’s a festival-like atmosphere to the whole evening.
Lindsay
and I arrived, promptly popped some masks on our heads, and made a bee-line for
the Pimms tent. First Pimms of the year and it felt oh-so-good. However, we’d
reckoned without the pesky Scottish weather, so soon found ourselves huddled
around the best shelter we could find: the top deck of the children’s
playground ship.
Pimms
quaffed from that surprisingly wonderful penguin-viewing area, we climbed back
down the ship’s stairs and joined the throngs of grown-ups once again. The
evening is set up in three specific areas, where visitors can listen to bands,
chuckle at some comedy, or simply kick back with some street food between
animal talks. We decided upon the latter to fuel our trip up the hill to see
the big cats. A gourmet burger on brioche and an enormous bratwurst later and
we were felt up to the job….
…Until we
were distracted by the notion of some face painting. The queue was long, but
like the best things in life, was worth the wait. We rather unimaginatively
went for faces that would reflect our masks – uncanny isn’t it?
Edinburgh
Zoo Nights run throughout summer, so grab some tickets and get down there. Make
sure you, unlike us, don’t get too carried away with the bars and extras, and
give yourself enough time to go and visit the animals too – we left it too late
and found that many of the areas we’d have liked to see were closed off. Make
sure and chat to the staff too, who were on hand throughout the night to place
stick insects in your palm, point out the penguin chicks nestling behind their
mothers, or advise on where to go next.
Check out
future dates and buy tickets here.
