Exhibition Park welcomed some new residents as 25 bronze lions were unveiled by film star Virginia McKenna.
Virginia starred alongside her husband Bill Travers in Born Free in 1966, which told the true story of Elsa, an orphaned lioness who was rehabilitated by couple George and Joy Adamson and returned to the wild. The centrepiece of the exhibition, Born Free Forever , is a sculpture of Elsa atop a 4 x4, with the exhibition aiming to raise awareness of the plight facing the world's lion population today.
Born Free Forever is a free exhibition and the largest of its kind in the UK and is part of a year of action for lions, with only 20,000 remaining compared to 200,000 a century ago. Their number could decline even further, with the possibility that the big cats could go extinct across much of their wild range in the next 30 years.
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The unveiling saw co-founders of the Born Free Foundation Virginia McKenna and son Will Travers bringing the exhibition to the late husband and father Bill's hometown in the year he would have celebrated his 100th birthday, had it not been for his sudden and tragic death in 1994.
Bill, who received an OBE for his conservation work, was born and bred in Newcastle, with his family living in Jesmond. He went out to the Far East with the Army aged 18 and joined the Gurkha regiment, but the city still holds a place in his family's heart.
Virginia McKenna, OBE said: "Of course, I didn’t know him in those early days but I can’t tell you what it means to be here in his hometown and the wonderful warm welcome we’ve had from everybody. I can hardly find the words to describe what I feel about this amazing exhibition here.
"First of all, for the reasons I’ve said about it being in Bill’s hometown, but also the incredible sculptures of these individuals. They were all or still are real lions that we’ve rescued from captivity and each has its own particular story and I’m so thrilled for the young people, I hope a lot of young people and schools will come and visit this exhibition.
"Through those individual stories they’ll learn so much about lions that they can never learn through watching them in captivity."
On the day, fifty children from Burnopfield Primary School came to the unveiling of the lions - one of whom is a Born Free Junior Ambassador. Ten-year-old Thea Caine, has already raised £7,000 for Born Free from various fundraising attempts and has also won the charity's young wildlife film maker competition.
Her mum Cheryl Nicholson, who works in conservation herself, said: "I'm incredibly proud of Thea. She's absolutely honoured, as am I, that she was invited to join Virginia McKenna to unveil Born Free Forever .
"She's one of mine and Thea's heroes and I'm so proud of her being there today and supporting the Born Free Foundation. From quite an early age, Thea wanted to raise awareness of what people could do for wildlife and when she was five she did her first mini documentary in Pontburn Woods with her teddy bears to help people learn about tigers and it's grown from there."
Born Free Forever will be in Newcastle until the end of June, before it goes on to Edinburgh. Its installation in the North East comes after three months at Waterloo's Millennium Green in London.
Will Travers MBE, said: "I'm really thrilled that the exhibition has now come north to my dad's home city Newcastle and here it is in Exhibition Park. It looks fantastic, it looks very tactile.
"People want to get up close, they want to have a look and so they should. I know this place is having with people, there's a playground, tennis courts and this lovely café so I know people come to this park.
"Now they have an extra reason to come to the park to see this amazing exhibition, all of these different lions, all of whom have a story to tell."
Born Free Forever will be on display in Newcastle's Exhibition Park from April 4 until June 30.
