From 12th April 2021, families in Purley will be able to track down the ‘Secret Carnival’ and its wily characters via smartphones
As high streets open once more this April, Purley Business Improvement District (BID) is acutely aware that families will want to look for fun activities that are safe, socially distanced and contactless. As part of a programme of events, they’ve teamed up QR code trail experts High Street Safari to create the free, interactive story-trail that is designed to encourage children to walk, get engaged and most importantly, have a lot of fun.
The story trail is positioned around Purley town centre with 10 carnival characters, like Harlequin, the cheeky jester. The trail takes about 45 minutes to complete but can be completed in more than one visit. For families and groups to take part in and get a personalised, digital ‘selfie storybook’ at the end.
To create their ‘selfie storybooks’ families need to practice their acting as they take funny ‘scene’ selfies along the trail, with directions like ‘look amazed’ or ‘look curious’. Then, once they complete the trail, their selfies are then embedded directly into the book pages as part of the story. The book tells readers about the day their family went on a tour of the secret carnival – so they become stars of the story and get a wonderful keepsake.
The trail works by utilising contactless QR codes, without the need for families to download or sign up to anything. With safety in mind, it has been designed so that there is no need to go inside the venues.
When families visiting Purley scan each character’s unique QR code they’ll learn their names and what their role is in the carnival. Younger children will enjoy spotting the colourful characters in shop windows and older kids, and grown-up ones, will engage by hearing the stories.
