Free fun, food, face-painting, ice-cream, treats from a toy shop and even jewellery are all up for grabs in Wrexham this summer.
Families heading to the town’s bustling Eagles Meadow shopping centre are promised plenty to keep young ones entertained throughout August.
Every Friday sees free fun sessions for youngsters celebrating the seaside and featuring cartoon characters on stilts, plus there’s a pop-up kids kitchen on the Bank Holiday weekend, Saturday August 26.
Each Thursday there’s free face-painting on offer from 11.30am to 2.30pm, while on Tuesday and Wednesdays shoppers can nab a free lunch-time (1-2pm) ice-cream at Antonio’s Ices mobile van in the centre, just by showing a receipt from a purchase in an Eagles Meadow store that day.
Plus the centre’s Pizza Express restaurant is giving away free garlic bread or dough balls, for up to four people, any day through August, and each Tuesday Starbucks is giving away 4oz samples, from noon to 2pm.
Every Wednesday parents can pick up a surprise bag of treats from The Entertainer, with every purchase.
Mococo is offering free sterling silver cubic zirconia earrings worth £20 when you spend £80 or more, every Monday to Wednesday morning, from 9am to noon.
Jewellers F Hinds is also offering to give your cherished rings and other jewellery a free clean – just pop into the store between 3am and 4pm to get up to five rings returned to their sparkling best.
There will be more giveaways throughout August on the Eagles Meadow Facebook page as well, including free bowling and cinema tickets.
Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre manager Kevin Critchley said: “We’ve set out to make sure that everybody has fun this summer, with all these giveaways.
“We know how hard it can be to keep young ones entertained through the school holidays, and that’s why we have organised this seaside-themed family entertainment. The sessions have been very popular in previous years and we are expecting a lot of children to join us every Friday.
“There’s also a big range of other giveaways for families – shoppers just have to mention Free Summer Fun to get their freebie.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the entertainment, and welcoming families to Eagles Meadow.”
The Friday fun sessions kick off on Friday August 4 with Punt, a walkabout show that carries two hilarious and eccentric characters into Eagles Meadow.
The shipwrecked Captain and Boatswain’s mate have been adrift since 1786 and are more than a little confused! Batten down the hatches as youngsters re-live every seafaring cliché from Treasure Island to Moby Dick.
Then on Friday August 11 the madcap Van Dunk Brothers will be heading to Eagles Meadow. Armed with a trunk full of trunks, swimming caps, goggles, armbands and verruca cream, the boys will delight crowds with their award-winning dry-land synchronised swimming display.
They’ll perform the routine that won them the gold medal at the Olympic Games, World Championships and Burnley Baths Swimming Gala, using only a kitsch soundtrack, physical comedy and two bottles of still mineral water.
On August 18 the Beach Patrol will be on duty, always ready to rescue any passerby. These huge, cartoon like characters use power skip stilts to enable them to leap and bounce up to six feet in the air whilst guarding the streets. Be dazzled by their daring drills – you’ll need CPR after these moustachioed musclemen have bared their biceps while diverting danger. Swim outside the flags at your own peril.
On Friday August 25 the Bank Holiday weekend kicks off with a visit by the Eccentric Bathers At Sea walkabout act. The interactive and engaging Eccentrics deliver wonderful wacky Victorian eccentricity in bathing suits, creating mayhem and interest for all the family.
The following day, Saturday August 26, the summer fun concludes with the Liver Cottage Mobile kitchen. Comedy chefs Hugh Fearn and Lee Whittingstall will present a cookery demonstration like no other.
As the mobile kitchen garden moves through the crowds they create ‘fusion food on the move’, blending home grown ingredients with food foraged from the corner shop, the streets and of course the audience. Their signature dish ‘Pan Fried Pizza Crusts with Medallions of Air Dried Chewing Gum’ has been hailed by the critics as groundbreaking, audacious and chewy. Blurring the boundaries between ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’, ‘urban’ and ‘rural’, ‘fresh’ and ‘best before June 1972’, the Liver Cottage chefs stick to their motto… “Don’t leave anyone wanting more!”
For more details of special offers visit eagles-meadow.co.uk
