Party in the Park 2012 Staffordshire

August 2012

In August 2012 I worked with a core group of church leaders and technical people to put on a one day event in Burton upon Trent called ‘party in the park 2’. This vision was to take over the entire Stapenhill gardens area and put on a free day of rides and entertainment for the families of the Burton community.

I was fully responsible for the games and interactive entertainment, and wanted something people would remember and that made an impact, rather than the usual slide and bouncy castle.  After many hours trawling through the internet sites I found D J Land of Castles, which grabbed my attention with a giant 30 foot clown. So as well as three other suppliers I contacted them and requested a quote for 10 inflatables. I wasn’t very hopeful because D J Castles were based in Liverpool which was three hours’ drive from Burton, and I had a budget to keep to.

Paul the manager of D J Land of Castles gave me an offer I could not refuse. He offered 10 x castles with an agreed number of generators, rodeo bull and three operators on site for the full day for a discounted price to meet my budget. He was very competitive with other offers that were nearer.

Because the event was public, I needed to satisfy the county council and authorities that the rides were safe and met all safety standards. D J Land of Castles willingly co-operated with me by providing equipment information, risk assessments and public liability insurance documents.  The Council were fully satisfied that D J Land of Castles complied with the necessary requirements.

On the day of the event the team arrived very early in the morning with the agreed inflatables and rides, set up in time for the event start and maintained all the rides with the assistance of my team supervising each inflatable. Over 5,500 people attended the event, which was busy from start to finish. We had St Johns Ambulance first aid on site and only one accident was reported which was a nose bleed due to a fall. 

The D J Land of castles team were professional, organised and committed to making the event run efficiently and successfully, and enjoyed being a part of the day.

Unfortunately one of the inflatables was torn during the day, however we were not asked to pay anything towards the repair of that. When the event had finished, the money requested was the cost agreed.

Feedback from the rest of my team was very positive and the entire day was a huge success.

I would not have any hesitation in recommending D J Land of Castles as a professional, reliable and trustworthy entertainment business, and should the need arise happily book them again.

Andy Middleton

2012 Party in the Park 2 organiser