A Hull city centre street is set to be transformed into a huge dinosaur pen as a popular festival returns next week.
Thousands of parents and children are expected to descend on the city centre for Dino Day on Friday, August 9, which will see King Edward Street transformed from 10am until 4pm.
There will be 12 individual shows, each lasting half an hour, with the park rangers unleashing the roar-some combination of a T-Rex, velociraptor, spinosaurus and dilophosaurus.
The Fruit Market’s Dinostar museum will be present with one of an array of dino-themed stalls, and activities in the immediate area will include free face painting and a children’s colouring competition.
In addition, families can look forward to a dockside Dino Disco and a dinosaur egg hunt.
Kathryn Shillito, HullBID executive director, said: “Dino Day has quickly become established as one of our biggest and most successful events of the year and this year promises to be better than ever.
“City centre traders have reported booming business from our two previous Dino Days and the result of that is we have even more taking part this year. In particular food and drink outlets know they’re in for a busy day and they’re stocking up well in advance.”
The Prospect Shopping Centre will join in the fun with a trail of dino eggs hidden across the various retail stores. There will also be a chance to meet their interactive Dino Baby for a special reward or have photographs taken with Dino Bob, the friendly dinosaur mascot who will be roaming the shopping centre. The Prospect Shopping Centre is also offering cut-price parking for £1 all day.
Stage @TheDock, only yards away from the Dinostar museum, will be the venue for families to strut their Spinosaurus stuff at two Dino Discos taking place from 11am until 1pm and from 2pm until 4pm.
Emily Taylor, owner of Johnston’s butchers and deli in Carr Lane, Hull, said her team would be serving up a Dino Day package of tasty treats and fun fancy dress.
Emily said: “We’ll be making some Dino Day fairy buns so customers can take a big bite out of a dinosaur and we’re also planning to decorate the shop with dinosaur bunting and a dinosaur cake stand.
“We’ll be dressing up as well. Our overalls are green anyway so that helps and we’ll be wearing our dinosaur hats for the day.”
At Lush in King Edward Square, store manager Ben Garne and his team have managed to get their hands on some exclusive bath bomb kits that are not normally available to sell in stores.
Ben said: “During the day we’ll host five sessions for nine people at a time to come in, make their special Dino Day bath bombs and take them home to use. It’s just £3.50 per person and it’s for people of all ages, although children might need an adult to help them.
“We have a few events where customers get the chance to make their own products and people are always asking about them, so we expect to be busy. The HullBID events generally attract a big crowd as well. For Superhero Day we calculated there was a big increase in business and Dino Day is usually even better.”