AS The Hoppings prepares to head to Newcastle’s Town Moor this summer, organisers have published a five-year plan to ensure it retains its crown as Europe’s largest funfair.
It will open to the public for the 141st time on Friday 16 June with an extra day added so thrill-seekers have until Sunday 25 June to explore the 400 rides, attractions, gourmet cuisines and stalls it has to offer.
And – in a first for The Hoppings – Crow Events, which took over its management from The Freemen of Newcastle last year, has unveiled a number of sponsorship opportunities for businesses to take advantage of the high profile event and its vast audiences.
Covering more than a kilometre of the 1000 acre Town Moor, the fair – founded in 1882 as a counterpoint to the annual Race Week at Newcastle Racecourse – regularly attracts more than half a million visitors a year.
Along with traditional rides, such as helter skelters, waltzers and roundabouts, recent advances in technology have seen the addition of major new headline attractions such as The Mobile Magic Mouse Family Roller coaster, the dropping Star Flyer, which spans 200ft across the skyline; the Mac 5 Bomber and The Air.
And Crow Events, which rebranded The Hoppings last year, has now put in place a digital marketing campaign to run all year round with new features, such as entertainment villages and zones phased over a five-year plan and four sponsorship packages, priced from £5k.
These include the Standard package which offers the sponsor a wide range of print, digital and social media marketing opportunities along with 10 VIP passes redeemable during the duration pf the Hoppings and invitations to the launch event.
Car park sponsors would enjoy all the above along with the chance to see the car park named after their business or organisation and its name and logo featured on all entry signage and on the gantry spanning the four lanes allowing up to 20,000 vehicles to pass , each receiving a tickets with the potential sponsors details on.
There is also the opportunity to sponsor Feast Street – a vast selection of gourmet food stalls accompanied by a large dining area, licensed bar and live music – and the Magic Mouse roller coaster; one of the fairground’s most enduringly popular rides.
Ryan Crow of Crow Events said: “The Hoppings is more than just Europe’s largest funfair, it is an event of prestige and magnitude and all that is great about British culture and we aim to evolve it to rival the likes of Winter Wonderland at London’s Hyde Park.
“We want to embrace and maintain the DNA of the event, while evolving it to appeal to a modern digitally focused audience – and we invite anyone who shares this dream and who wants to join our sponsorship programme to get in touch.”
For further information call 01609 600 022 or email hoppings@crowevents.com