Santa's Festive Grotto

There’s a fantastic Santa Extravaganza coming to Shipley this December!

It’s the festive season again and Santa is making a special stop by Shipley! From Saturday, 6^th December you’ll find him in his grotto 8-10 Westgate, the Shipley Indoor Market – where an elf helper will be assisting Santa to hand out chocolate treats and with the option of taking a photo so you and your child will have a memento of the special day!

Come along to the magical setting of the grotto, and meet all of Santa’s helpers – red-nosed Rudolph, the enchanting Toy Soldier and even a penguin have come along from the North Pole too! There’s even a magic post box – so you can post your letters straight to Santa’s workshop where all the elves are busy putting together the presents.

The Christmas fun will be running throughout December so be sure to come along to take part in the fantastic festive activities, meet Santa and have a wonderful time! See below for all the times and dates – can’t wait to see you there!

SANTA WILL BE IN HIS GROTTO:

6^th December (opening weekend – parade & pantomime)

12^th, 13^th, 19^th, 20^th, 22^nd December (parade & grotto in indoor market)

Times: 10.30am – 3pm

Entry to grotto (with each child receiving a gift): £4

Entry to grotto (with each child receiving a gift and having a photo taken with Santa): £8

Wizard of Oz pantomime featured in Bradford Telegraph & Argus

There's a great article in the Bradford Telegraph & Argus today, notifying the residents of the Bradford area about the wonderful pantomime we'll be bringing to Shipley on December 6th, 2014.

There's also an amazing video of our very own Wicked Witch!

Did you meet our toy soldiers in Nottingham Intu Victoria Centre at the weekend?

Our Toy Soldiers went off to Nottingham at the weekend - they were very popular as always!

They helped out carrying shopping bags, calling lifts and having lots of fun with the shoppers out to take advantage of the Black Friday events.

See here for an article in the Nottingham Post!

Christmas Time is Here!

Christmas is officially here!

We're very busy in the Q20 office, sending out Santa, all his elves and some of his good friends too, like Percy Penguin, Rockin' Robin, Minty the Polar Bear and Frosty the Snowman.

See below to find out about an event near you!

If you're in the Livingston area, you should pop along to the Livingston McArthur Design Outlet to meet Santa in his grotto (with elves helping out to take special photos of children meeting Santa). There's also craft workshops run by our magical toy soldiers and rag dolls, and mini-pantomimes taking place on the 6th & 20th Dec!

All through the festive season, there's a Toy Soldier and an Elf waiting to meet you at the East Lancs Railway Christmas trains event! If you'd like to take a magical journey on a real steam train, meet Santa and his helpers, then be sure to get tickets soon!

Shipley's in for a real treat this December - we've got an amazing Wizard of Oz pantomime show on the 6th, and lots of other fun activities going on up until Christmas! There'll be a grotto with Santa visiting, some helpful elves to take and hand out some photos of those magical memories!

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz will be in Shipley this year!

Keep checking back to hear about more events this festive season!

Frosty & Percy going to Durham this weekend!

If you're in the Durham area this Sunday, you should definitely pop over to Prince Bishops Shopping Centre to meet our loveable, huggable cuddly characters, Frosty the Snowman & Percy Penguin!

They'll be there to help get you in the Christmas mood, maybe even help you with your Christmas shopping! So don't miss them - see you there!

Halloween's over and done with, Christmas is on the way!

Let's get the Christmas party started!

 Amazing cuddly characters!

Fabulously fun parades! 

 Great for children and adults.

 A visit from Santa ...

He can bring his reindeer along too!

To drive our signature Q20 sleigh ...

Lots of other unique characters, like our Snowballs and Silver Christmas Trees ... 

 So don't miss out this Christmas ...

Let's make it an amazing time of year! 

We had an amazing Halloween with East Lancashire Railways!

Check out our super spooky video from the East Lancs Railway Halloween trains ... we sent along our Dracula and his Bride, Frankenstein's Monster and Igor, they were terrifically terrifying!

See some of the other amazing images that was taken over the Halloween period.

Halloween Fun!

We're busy, busy, busy in the office starting to get ready for Christmas, but we haven't forgotten Halloween's next week!

As usual, Q20 will be involved in special spooky fun up and down the country, be there to be scared!

If you're in Lancashire for Halloween, make sure you get your tickets for the Halloween Ghost Trains - some of our favourite frighteners will be all aboard!

Shoppers at Dockside Outlet Centre in Chatham can join in with some great cut-n-colour activities, perfect for your little monsters. They'll take home a frightening pumpkin mask, a flapping bat, a silky spider or even a witch's hat, just in time for trick or treating!

At Intu Potteries, you'll see our Circus of Ghouls show - where kids get involved, dressed up (with fabulous face painting too) and join a ghoulish parade with Wacky Witch and Dippy Wizard.

Happy Halloween from the team at Q20!

Christmas is on the way!

It's starting to feel like Christmas in the Q20 office!

We're getting lots of bookings for the festive season, with all your favourite characters getting ready to ride in Santa's sleigh up and down the country to make your Christmas magical.

If you're interested in having any of our fabulous walkabout cuddlies, Santa on our signature sleigh or some of our amazing stilt-walking characters for a Christmas-themed event (whether it's setting up Santa's grotto or putting on an amazing show to switch on the Christmas lights) we'd love to hear from you.

But be sure to get in touch soon, as our characters are busiest at this magical time of year!

Dockfield Open Day - Pirate Invasion!

Saturday 13^th September saw Dockfield Creative Arts Hub open its gates for glorious day showcasing what the hub has to offer. From potters, printers to ballet and bands, even Pirates couldn’t resist parking their ship on the canal and coming to spend the day exploring the site and training up new recruits!

Captain Penny the Princess Pirate was overwhelmed by the amount of young pirate recruits who were willing to take part in some very challenging but fun games!

Taking the Pirate Oath, experiencing life on the deck and escaping from the sharks of Shipley, everyone worked as a team so all our pirate recruits could get their hands on some lovely chocolate treasure!

Shipley Street Arts Festival 2015

You may remember that in June this year, we held the first ever Shipley Street Arts Festival.

It turned out to be an amazing, exciting event, bringing the world of street entertainment to the local residents of Shipley, as a free event which involved the talents of local school children and a variety of artists from up and down the country.

Well, the good news is: we're hoping to bring it back this year!

We're currently in the middle of putting together ideas and proposals for another fabulous festival - and we want to hear from you!

Are you a street artist who might be interested in performing? Have you any ideas for the next Shipley Street Arts Festival? We'd like to hear from you!

Get in touch with us (using the contact form on the left hand side of the blog page) or you can contact us through Facebook, Twitter, or go to our website and find the contact details for the Q20 office.

We look forward to speaking with you!

Don't miss out on a spooky Halloween!

Beastie can't believe that some people haven't booked something spooky for Halloween yet!

Head over to the Q20 website now and see some of the amazing acts and performances we have available ... vampires and witches and of course, big cuddly beasts!  

Our beautiful Bride of Dracula!

Our cut-n-colour activities are always popular with kids

King Carrot is coming to town!

If you're in the Nottingham area this weekend, you should definitely head over to the Victoria Shopping Centre (Saturday 13th) and the Broadmarsh Centre (Sunday 14th)!

Q20 creation "King Carrot" will be there to help Nottingham celebrate food with the two food festivals taking place at the centres. The Popcorn Princess will be there too, as well as lots of other great entertainment. If you're a foodie or just fancy some food-related fun, this is the event for you!