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Bristol Post

Entertainment

Louisa Streeting

Wake The Tiger's first after-hours event for Halloween had me feeling like a kid again

Bristol BristolLive

I’m not usually one for celebrating Halloween mostly due to the fact I’m rubbish with anything even mildly scary. Wake The Tiger was offering something a little different, a one-off event for Halloween for the first time ever, giving you after-hours access to their Danse Macabre, meaning dance of death.

The brains behind Boomtown Festival opened the world’s first ‘amazement park’ in Bristol this year, an attraction that is best described as being allowed to walk onto the most elaborate, immersive film set with all access. Except there are no cameras; guests are invited to Meridia, a fictitious, post-apocalyptic world consisting of 27 environments to explore.

Wake The Tiger has met great success so far - it often sells out at the weekend - so I was intrigued to see the creation for myself, which is based in an old warehouse in St Philips. There is a great mystery behind the art installation with little to go by from the website, which is deliberately vague to add to your sense of wonder and imagination.

There was a queue on arrival as you’re taken into the experience in small groups to listen to the introduction. We were greeted by an estate agent who walked us through the microscopic apartment of the future before we entered the labyrinth.

It's a maze of different room and tunnels (BristolLive)

Every moment was interactive - each room, which was entirely different from the next, invited you to touch, see and listen, with little instruction on what do to apart from the occasional riddle from one of the performers. There were buttons to press, levers to pull, secret doors to walk through and games to play throughout the maze of environments that tangled into each other.

I won’t discuss the specifics so as to not spoil it for those who haven’t experienced Wake The Tiger, but the detail in each room was truly astounding. I felt like these interactive experiences are only afforded to children these days and the whole thing made me feel like a kid again, but at the most elaborate indoor play area imaginable.

There were actors throughout the amazement park (BristolLive)

Because everyone had made a stellar effort with their costumes it was difficult to distinguish who was an actor and who was a customer, which definitely added to the bizarreness of it all. You were guided through the attraction by whoever was willing to take you through it, with lots of added scarce tactics from a few of the performers.

The Danse Macabre event was certainly on the pricier side for Halloween events at £35 per person - adult tickets on a normal day are £18.50 - but as it was sold out this clearly wasn’t a deterrent for lots of people. There were extra quirks to warrant the heftier price, like more actors and live music, but it wasn't the most accessible event.

It was the first time the attraction had hosted an after-hours event (BristolLive)

After you’d explored Meridia, we were led back into the bar area which had plenty of live music, tacos and cocktails. The DJ was occasionally interrupted by a circus-style performance that cleared the dance floor and the whole thing had a vaudeville feeling to it, which is definitely more appealing to me than a fright night.

I did fear that Wake The Tiger would lose out as a one-time experience meaning people wouldn’t revisit, but I’d certainly go back again. You can’t possibly see every detail for the first time like you can’t enjoy every painting in an art gallery in a single visit.

Wake The Tiger is located at 127 Albert Rd, Bristol, BS2 0YA

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