Unicorns on the castle horizon

HORNED horses will take over Kryal Castle this long weekend with the adventure park’s inaugural Unicorn Festival kicking off medieval fantasy fun.

General manager Bart Hamilton said along with the park’s normal offerings, the Labour Day weekend will be dominated by the mythical equine creatures.

“We’ve got a unicorn jumping castle, unicorn face-painting, unicorn hair, a unicorn petting zoo. You name it unicorn, and we’ll have it,” he said.

“Aside from our usual range of activities like jousting and archery, we’ve just gone full unicorn.”

Although intended for families and young girls, Mr Hamilton said the reception has been surprisingly gender neutral with adults and young boys expressing interest as well.

He also said the team has already sold double the amount of presale ticket sales compared to their previous year’s Labour Day event, and he expects to see about 4000 people attend overall.

“We’ve already sold out of unicorn rides so we’re trying to get more horses in so that enough people can get a go,” he said.

“We really wanted to do something for the long weekend now that people are out and about and coming back into regional Victoria.

“And it seems that with the Unicorn Festival we’ve hit on something that people really want to have fun with.”

Prizes will be awarded for the best costume, and it is hoped the event will be the latest in Kryal Castle’s annual offerings that people can flock to year after year.

“For us it’s about the fact that we’ll just grow and grow and bring more people into Ballarat,” Mr Hamilton said.

“We think this will be the first of many more that we’ll do so it’ll be nice for it to kick off and be a success right out of the gate.”

The Unicorn Festival will giddy up from 11am to 4pm on Saturday, 12 to Monday, 14 March.

Tickets are $35 for 16 and above, and $22 for 3 to 15 year olds and can be found via the Kryal Castle website.