RAVI Ehelepola spent a year shaping his ideal children’s event – and the result sounds spectacular.
Brimming with everything he imagines will delight both toddlers and parents, Toddler World will feature dance, gymnastics, obstacle courses, painting, animals and performances from Elsa, Spiderman, Freedom Fairies and Happy Feet Fitness.
What’s more, there will be no junk food for sale and parents can bring their own snacks, as well as enjoy free onsite parking.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWThe Perth father of two created the experience after feeling disgruntled with festivals and activities on offer for his toddlers.
“My wife and I found that at the paid kids’ carnival events, there weren’t a lot of attractions for toddlers and the ones that were for toddlers didn’t have adequate security or safety features,” Ehelepola said.
“On top of that, there were large volumes of people, you had to wait quite a long time for rides and then there were a lot of things unsuitable for toddlers like fairy floss, popcorn and ice cream.
“So then we tried the community free events and they were overwhelming and quite difficult to get to, and stressful, for parents.
“We didn’t really enjoy either experience.”
Ehelepola then took his kids to several individual activities including toddler basketball.
“The problem here is that there are great activities in the community but often you don’t know which is good and which isn’t, and you don’t know whether your child will like that activity before signing up, so it can be costly,” he said.
“We thought: ‘Let’s bring this whole idea of a big children’s event that is specifically for toddlers at the one indoor facility and look at what mums and dads with toddlers want’.
“We realised, they want a life as well. They don’t want to be stuck at home or at the usual play centre, park or local café, they would like to go to a stadium with a proper event.”
Ehelepola said he also wanted to inspire parents to try something at home – such as getting out the play dough – they may not have done had they not attended.
Community Newspaper Group has 10 family passes to give away to Toddler World at HBF Stadium. Enter here by 10am, June 9.
THE ESSENTIALS
What: Toddler World
When: June 15-17
Where: HBF Stadium, Mt Claremont
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com.au