Enchanted Parks is NewcastleGateshead Initiative and Gateshead Council’s popular after-dark arts adventure in the atmospheric setting of Saltwell Park. The annual event, which sees specially commissioned artists transform Gateshead’s Saltwell Park into a magical and mythical wonderland, will run for six nights this winter.

This year’s event tells the enchanting story of Ursula Wailes, the eldest daughter of William Wailes and heiress to the Saltwell Towers Estate, who makes a gift of Saltwell Park to the people of Gateshead.  After filling the park with incredible inventions, plants from all over the world and wonderful creatures, she captures the imagination of children and adults alike; many reporting that the park itself feels 'alive'.

By the River Brew Co.'s HWKRMRKT will be bringing its own array of tasty smells and treats for you to enjoy as well as a bumper Craft Market and the return of BALTIC Shop.

This is the story of a travelling fair, but not a fair of fast, over-priced rides and candy apples. A fair that has been travelling in one guise or another for centuries. The earliest sightings of the fair were reported in 18th Century Europe, later in the 19th century across the Atlantic and again in the heady days of London in the 1920s.  

At the helm is Peter Chevalier, an illusionist and philanthropist who has gathered around him an extended ‘family’ of people who are in some way lost. This weird and wonderful ‘family’ have attracted attention, suspicion and awe wherever they turn up and turn up they do. Overnight they appear, stay for a few days and then disappear. Each fair is different, taking on the quirks and foibles of whatever place they end up, but the story is always the same: what have you lost and how can we help you find it?

But surely it’s not possible for this to be the same Peter Chevalier who began this work hundreds of years ago? How can one man travel across centuries? Can you trust an illusionist? What brings him to Saltwell Park? What lost things does he claim to be returning? What is it that he is searching for? And will he find it?

Price of admission:

• Adults            £9.00 + 50p booking charge

• Child 3 and under    Free

• Child 4 - 16        £4.50 per ticket type

Visit the website for more information and to buy tickets