If you go down to the shops this summer, you’re sure of a big surprise with young shoppers and their families invited to follow the Bears Go To Town trail around Bristol Shopping Quarter, finding the names of the 24 bears displayed in shops, cafes and leisure attractions for the chance to win prizes. It’s free to take part.
For the first time, the Broadmead Business Improvement District (BID) has teamed up with one of Bristol’s top attractions, Wild Place Project, to co-create a summer trail for families to enjoy in Bristol Shopping Quarter. It’s inspired by and celebrates Bear Wood, an exciting new exhibit opening at Wild Place Project this summer that will allow visitors to travel back in time 10,000 years when bears lived in and around Bristol.
Running from Monday 22 July to Saturday 31 August, the trail around Broadmead, The Arcade, The Galleries and Cabot Circus will feature 24 beautifully decorated bears, each one a metre high. Children are encouraged to write the name of each bear in the trail map, which doubles up as an entry form for a competition with family tickets to Wild Place Project among the prizes.
The maps will be available from the Tourist Information Centre on the Harbourside, the Information Desk in Cabot Circus, the New Room in Broadmead, and from each host venue. Post boxes for competition entries will be located at Jungle Mania in The Galleries and at the Information Desk in Cabot Circus.
Children will also have the opportunity to help decorate some ‘bare bears’ at a free workshop with Bristol Zoo’s outreach team at Cabot Circus on Wednesday 14 August, and at Wildlife Craft workshops taking place at the New Room on 25 July and 1, 8 & 15 August. The New Room will also be hosting Bring a Bear story time sessions for very young children and their teddies on 30 July and 6 & 20 August. A small charge will apply for the New Room sessions, which can be booked via newroombristol.org.uk/events.
Bear Wood is the UK’s largest and most ambitious brown bear exhibit, set to open at Wild Place Project on 25 July. The new multi-million pound woodland exhibit will be home to Bears, wolves, lynx and wolverine. It will be the only place in the UK where bears and wolves will coexist in our ancient woodland as they would have done thousands of years ago.
Wild Place Project is a fun family attraction that provides outdoor adventure, play and learning with an emphasis on protecting threatened habitats on our doorsteps and around the globe. Located just off junction 17 of the M5, Wild Place Project offers the chance to see animals including giraffe, cheetahs, zebra, gelada baboons, meerkats, lemurs, okapi, red-river hogs and eland – as well as the bears, wolves, wolverines and lynx in the new Bear Wood enclosure.
Wild Place Project was opened by the Bristol Zoological Society, which also operates Bristol Zoo Gardens, in summer 2013. To find out more about Wild Place Project and Bear Wood and to book tickets visit www.wildplace.org.uk/bearwood.
Broadmead BID manager Steve Bluff says:
“We are delighted to be working with the team at Wild Place Project to put on a fantastic free trail this summer. The bears are stunning and we’re sure families are going to have lots of fun seeking them out!”
Dagmar Smeed, Head of Marketing and Communications at Bristol Zoological Society which runs Wild Place Project, adds:
“Bear Wood with its raised walkway, bears, wolverines, lynx and wolves, is such an exciting addition to Wild Place Project. It’s great to be working with the Broadmead BID team to create this fun trail and we hope families will be inspired to visit the real bears at Wild Place.”
For further information visit www.bristolshoppingquarter.co.uk/bears