Blenheim Palace announces How to Train Your Dragon trail with worldwide bestselling author-illustrator Cressida Cowell
With World Book Day approaching on 7th March 2024, Blenheim Palace has announced a How to Train Your Dragon trail in Adventure Play for the Easter holidays from Friday 29 March to Sunday 14 April 2024.
Following the 20th anniversary of Cressida Cowell’s incredibly popular How to Train Your Dragon book series, Adventure Play’s temporary trail will encourage children to explore the series of immersive interconnecting zones with secret chambers, clamber nets, tunnels, slides, rope bridges and more to spot 10 dragons including Toothless Daydream, Skullion, Flamehuffer, and Raptortongue.
On arrival at Adventure Play at Blenheim Palace, intrepid explorers will receive an activity sheet ready to complete with letters that each dragon will reveal throughout the trail. The letters will then need to be rearranged to form one long word. After completing the activity sheet, children will receive a dragon badge to celebrate their success.
Leading up to the immersive trail, children can enter Blenheim Palace’s creative competition from 1st March to 11th March, to design their very own dragon that will be featured in the How to Train Your Dragon trail in Adventure Play during the Easter holidays. The winning design will be chosen by the renowned author and illustrator, Cressida Cowell.
The winner will receive six tickets for their family to visit Adventure Play, a delicious afternoon tea for six at The Orangery restaurant and a special Blenheim Palace Adventure Play / dragon themed goodie bag from the Blenheim Palace shop, as well as a special goody bag filled with Easter treats from Hotel Chocolat. They will also receive a short break for up to 6 people at Blenheim Palace Lodge Retreat, brought to you by Darwin Escapes.*
There will also be four runners up prizes too – a set of tickets for the runner-up and their
immediate family to visit Blenheim Palace Adventure Play – in each age group: 4 – 6, 7– 8, 9 – 10 and 11 – 12.
Heather Morgan, Head of Marketing at Blenheim Palace, said, “We’re so excited to work with Cressida and her team for our upcoming Easter holiday activities. To have How to Train Your Dragon brought to life at Adventure Play will be iconic for our visitors.
“Adventure Play encourages children to be creative and let their imaginations run wild which is why we’ve incorporated a design challenge giving young people the chance to bring to life their very own dragon for our trail. We can’t wait for families to come along and see what we have planned. ”
Cressida Cowell, author and illustrator of How to Train Your Dragon, added, “I’m delighted to be partnering with Blenheim Place on their How to Train Your Dragon trail and competition. Encouraging children to read and create for pleasure has been my guiding principle ever since I became a children’s author, and projects like this are a fun and exciting way of getting the whole family involved and bringing the stories to life.”
Adventure Play is the biggest family-themed attraction in the Palace’s history and has been carefully designed and created to ensure children of all abilities from the ages of 2-12 are able to explore and enjoy the extensive play area. Covering a site larger than a football pitch, it celebrates the rich heritage of the 18th century baroque Palace, inspired by real-life features including the lakeside Boat House and Hensington Gateway.
For more information about Adventure Play and the upcoming How to Train Your Dragon trail and to book tickets visit, www.blenheimpalace.com/adventure-play/
* Terms and conditions apply
ENDS
Issued on behalf of Blenheim Palace. For more information please contact Cab Campaign blenheim@cabcampaign.co.uk
About Blenheim Palace
Home to the Dukes of Marlborough since 1705, the Oxfordshire Estate was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
Set in over 2,000 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland and designed by
Vanbrugh in the Baroque style, Blenheim Palace is also the birthplace of one of Britain’s most famous leaders, Sir Winston Churchill and it was his father who described the vista, on entering the Estate from the village of Woodstock, as the ‘finest view in England’.
About Cressida Cowell
Cressida Cowell MBE is the number one bestselling author-illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon, The Wizards of Once and Which Way to Anywhere book series, and the author of the Emily Brown picture books. She has sold 16 million books in 42 languages. How to Train Your Dragon is an award-winning film franchise, with a new live action movie coming in 2025. Cressida was Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2019-2022, and has been an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust for 20 years. She is a founder patron of the Children’s Media Foundation. She is an honorary fellow of Keble College, Oxford, and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton. She has won numerous prizes for her books, including the Blue Peter Book Award, the Ruth Rendell Award for Championing Literacy and the Hay Festival Medal for Fiction.
