REVIEW: Family Fun Day, Scarborough Open Air Theatre

Macie, three, and Ellie-Mae, six, were both delighted to be heading down to the North Bay venue and see the likes of Peppa Pig, Bob The Builder and Angelina Ballerina in action at the Family Fun Day.

As we made our way through the gates were greeted by staff handing out colourful balloons to the youngsters and Peppa Pig puzzles, shortly followed by a couple of lovely ladies on the YH Training stall handing the girls a frisbee apiece.

With around 45 minutes to kill before the first showing of the Bob The Builder mini-shows we decided to go an join the lengthy queue for the Peppa and George Meet and Greet.

The girls are usually very shy in such circumstances but they both enjoyed their cuddles with George and Peppa and took time to pose for a picture, which was swiftly followed by a quick snap with Angelina Ballerina and her best friend Alice.

We had a quick glance around the face-painting stall but were put off the by the massive queues, and had a look at the bouncy castle and bungee run but the girls were eager to watch the shows so returned to the arena.

Settling into our seats in time for the opening showing of the Bob The Builder mini-show I was expecting my girls to be less than impressed as they are probably more Peppa and Angelina fans rather than the expert builder, but far from it as they loved very minute of the show, which lasted between 20 and 25 minutes and was showed several times throughout the afternoon.

There were some great songs and jokes from Bob, Wendy, Muck and presenter Sam as the rather sparse crowd were entertained by the storyline based around a make-believe trip on the high seas with a recycling theme thrown in for good measure.

Rather than wait for the Angelina Ballerina show, we decided to decamp to the refreshments area after the Bob The Builder show had finished, joining some more lengthy queues for the food hut.

With the sun shining - after a few clouds early on - this flexible concept of mini-shows suited me as my girls prefer to be moving around doing things than being forced to sit still for a complete show.

Thanks to this format we headed back to our seats for the second showing of the Angelina mini-show, and although it kept their attentions for the entirety it was clear that this was not as entertaining for my daughters as the Bob show.

After another visit to see Peppa and George we headed home after a three-hour stay at the Open Air Theatre, the girls making sure they got some more cuddles from the porcine duo before we left the venue.

It is probably a shame that there was not another show, ideally involving Peppa and George, as it seemed that most youngsters were there to see them, so if this event was to be repeated an extra show or two may help keep the youngsters amused.