Lancaster BID is making final preparations for Dino Fest to come ROARing back into Lancaster city centre on 8th and 9th July. The event marks Lancaster’s prehistoric links as the home of Sir Richard Owen – the man who came up with the word ‘Dinosaur’.

The Mail:

Lancaster Dino Fest 2023 will be bigger and better than ever before with almost 600 children from local primary schools taking part in dino themed workshops over the two weeks leading up to the main event on 8th and 9th July. The weekend will see Lancaster city centre overrun with dinosaurs with a packed schedule from 10am until 4pm each day, including outdoor dinosaur performances and the chance to handle real dinosaur fossils and speak to professional palaeontologists. New for 2023, there will be a Dino and Fossil market and craft area located in St Nic’s Arcades.

The highlight of the weekend is always the giant animatronic dinosaurs which perform and roam the city centre throughout the weekend. This year, there will be more dinosaurs than ever before with a different schedule each day. Saturday will see live open air performances from Dinomania who were runners up in Britain’s Got Talent 2022. During the day you will have the chance to meet Nancy the Raptor, Ronnie the T-Rex, a collection of baby dinosaurs and watch an exhilarating show including an Ankylosaurus fight. On Saturday you will be able to get your photo taken next to a Jurassic Park Jeep to celebrate 30 years since the original film was released.

The Mail:

Sunday will see Bigfoot making a welcome return to Dino Fest with the chance to see Ritchie Raptor, Tank the Triceratops, Emily Bronty the Brontosaurus and Zues the Giant T-Rex who will all be back in Lancaster by popular demand. Visitors in Sunday will also be able to make festival flags with Magical Story Jars in St Nic’s and visit the fairground rides in Dalton Square.

Throughout the weekend, visitors will be able to meet the experts from the Isle if Wight’s Dino Isle Museum who will have a selection of their dinosaur fossils on display in Lancaster City Museum. There will also be the chance to purchase fossils and dinosaur related merchandise in St Nic’s Arcades, have your face painted in Marketgate Shopping Centre and join in with dinosaur themed craft activities in Sr Nic’s and at Judges Lodgings. You can also meet Fossils in t’Hills - a non-profit group of palaeontologists working to celebrate the amazing, underappreciated fossils of Northern England. They will be running activities in St Nic’s all weekend – drop by and discover our local fossil heritage for yourselves!

Make sure you check out the full schedule at https://lancasterbid.org/events/dino-fest/ for all the latest updates and to plan your weekend. After all, it’s not every day you can see a T-Rex and friends walking through Lancaster!

Whilst most of the attractions are free of charge, a new partnership with The Dukes offers some ticketed events to ensure real dinosaur enthusiast can really make the most of the weekend.

The Lancaster BID team are very excited to be bringing Dinomania – runner’s up in Britain’s Got Talent 2022 – to Lancaster for the first time. Dinomania will be joining Dino Fest on Saturday 8th July with some of their dinosaurs roaming free in the city centre. They will also be offering workshops for younger children at The Dukes at 10.30am and 3.00pm where Ranger Chris will captivate the audience with a live dinosaur egg hatch and introduce you to some of his dinosaur family.

Also at The Dukes, there is an opportunity to hear from World renowned palaeontologist, Dr Dean Lomax. Dr Lomax, who led the excavation of the giant 'Rutland Sea Dragon', will deliver an illustrated talk taking the audience on an exhilarating journey through millions of years, recounting his adventures and sharing stories of his amazing dinosaur discoveries through his work close to home and across the world.

The Mail:

Tickets for the Dinomania workshops cost £6 with a £1 per ticket discount for bookings of 4 or more. Tickets to hear Dr Dean Lomax cost £5 full and £3 concessions including children. Tickets for both events can be booked at https://dukeslancaster.org/. Book fast to make sure you don’t miss out!

Tom Fyson, Operations Manager at Lancaster BID, said ‘Dino Fest is always one of the busiest days in Lancaster’s events calendar. We are extremely grateful to our sponsors, Stagecoach, and to Lancashire County Council for providing funding which has allowed us to make the event even bigger and better for 2023. We’re excited to be bringing more dinosaurs than ever before into the city centre to be certain of a weekend to remember.

The event has been supported by Lancashire County Council, through the Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund. Thank you to all the businesses and individuals who pledged to our Crowdfunding campaign to secure full funding for the event.