Mersey Reporter - Merseybites News

THIS year's Botanic Gardens Family Fun Day will be held at the Botanic Gardens in Churchtown, Southport. This year will be the biggest and best yet, with over 50 attractions for people of all ages to enjoy and will again be free to attend, with thousands of visitors expected.

The Botanic Gardens Family Fun Day will be held on:- Sunday, 16 June 2024, between:- 10 am and 4 pm. It will this year be sponsored by:- Checkers of Churchtown, Southport...

Botanic Gardens Family Fun Day organiser Jess Rickers said:- "We're really looking forward to this year's Botanic Gardens Family Fun Day. It's going to be a fantastic event! We have far more attractions than we have ever had for families to enjoy. The park will be full of things for people to do throughout the day. Once again, it is completely free to attend, although we are grateful for any donations that will support the Botanic Gardens Community Association to continue making this park look so good. It was brilliant to see David and Ann Cobham, who lead the volunteers, being awarded the Sefton Community Impact Award at the Grand Pride Of Sefton Awards recently for all the work they do. We have 3 superb live singers this year to get the atmosphere going, all of them local, who will be situated near The Fernery. The Atkinson Wellbeing Choir will be entertaining visitors. People will be able to enjoy performances by talented youngsters from 6 local dance schools, which is more than we have ever had. Families will see our park filled with:- live music, bands, fairground rides, trampolines, inflatables, farm animals, dance performances, giant bubbles, stalls, donkey rides, birds of prey, and much more. Allday's Farm will be back, bringing a mobile farm with them so visitors could get up close and personal with their beautiful animals, which can be petted and fed. Our popular bubbleologists from Paris Bubbles are making a welcome return, their huge bubbles are always very popular. Hickory’s Smokehouse in Southport will be here giving out free popcorn. Children can look out for stalls offering hair braiding, glitter tattoos, and more. Southport Saviours will be demonstrating how to save someone’s life using a defibrillator. All our stalls are full, with:- craft stalls, novelty stalls, charity stalls. We have got over 50 different things happening all on the same day. There is lots to do for everyone. The Botanic Gardens Family Fun Day is a really local community event, organised for families in Southport to enjoy. Our 1st 2 events have been hugely popular with people. This 1 will be similar to those fun days, but even bigger and even better! We would like to remind people to bring cash with them, as we will have lots of local, independent businesses, not all of whom have access to card machines. The event is always popular so parking nearby is likely to be limited. We would like to promote walking, cycling, or arriving via public transport as much as possible. The Botanic Gardens is right next to the beautiful Churchtown Village, which is full of fantastic local independent restaurants, cafes, bars, shops and more. It's a perfect opportunity to enjoy a full day in Churchtown and enjoy everything that the Village has to offer."

The event will provide a platform to showcase what the Botanic Gardens is all about.

Jess Rickers said:- "Our last 2 family fun days have seen thousands of families coming out to enjoy this magnificent park. We want to show everyone, including organisations such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund, how much this park is loved, enjoyed and appreciated by the local community. The Botanic Gardens is definitely the people’s park and we all want to see investment being made to make it even better. The volunteers and Green Sefton do a great job in looking after the Botanic Gardens and making it look so good, but we need major investment to make it even better. This will be our third family fun day and we are grateful for the massive support we have had from local people, volunteers and local businesses including:- Checkers of Churchtown, our headline sponsor this year. Our local councillors and Green Sefton have been hugely supportive too."

Checkers of Churchtown Managing Director Andrew Wareham said:- "We are 1 of the longest established family-run businesses in Southport. We have always been keen to do what we can to support local community events in Southport where we can. When event organiser Jess Rickers approached us to say that the Botanic Gardens Family Fun Day needed a sponsor, we were delighted to support it. The Botanic Gardens is a beautiful, historic park that has been enjoyed by many generations of local families, and we want to see it there to be visited for generations to come."

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