Source:
https://scmp.com/article/656907/its-bigger-and-more-fun-ever

It's bigger and more fun than ever

Carnival time is a great opportunity to connect and interact with the Toys 'R' Us faithful, and the experience comes to life more and more every year at the fun-filled Lan Kwai Fong Street Carnival.

Elaine Ma Yee-ling from Toys 'R' Us, Hong Kong's No1 toy retailer, believes the company's involvement is getting bigger and better every year. 'We now have more booths, more activities and more fun,' she said. 'We get much greater participation from our toy manufacturers, and we seem to be attracting bigger crowds every year.'

The carnival attracts big crowds - some 200,000 are expected this time - and has become an event to look forward to. 'I think the organisers have done a great job in promoting the event. We definitely think Lan Kwai Fong itself is quite a tourist attraction, and this festival attracts tourists and locals,' said Ms Ma.

'The first year, we joined the carnival because it seemed like a great way to connect with our customers at a street level,' Ms Ma said. 'Even though we were not sure how much of an audience it would attract, we were fairly confident because of the great location and the opportunities for customer interaction.

'We are really happy to see how it has paid off over the years. We want to make kids happy, and a carnival setting is an ideal way to do that. It enables us to make our brand and the brand experience come alive.'

Newcomers to the festival this year will be the Barbie Beauty Class and Talent Runway. At the beauty class on D'Aguilar Street, students can design and make dresses for the dolls (there are six sessions both days). At the Talent Runway booth (where the bouncy castle was last year), children can dress up as their favourite princess, prince, cartoon character, action hero or professional - and get a free framed instant picture of themselves from Canon as a memento.

Other workshops in restaurants include Dora the Explorer home video making and minigames in California's, in California Tower on D'Aguilar Street. Fantasma Magic features at Lux Restaurant & Bar, but in quite a small space of only 100 sqft, so be sure to plan your itinerary through the festival experience carefully. At IQ Challenge Station (Lemongrass Thai restaurant), prizes like Blokus classics, rummikub express and UNO photo frames are to be won.

As ever, favourite cartoon characters will be roaming the streets for photo-shooting opportunities. The meet-and-greet characters this year include Geoffrey the Giraffe, the all time-favourite, Ah Leap, Mr Monopoly, Transformers, Moomin, Potato Head and Shu of Blu Dragon. Disney Princess, an animated Bubble Bee/Optimus Prime and Elmo will be gracing the meet-and-greet stations.

Outdoor stage venues will be hosting the Rubik's Cube Challenge, the Transformers Transforming Show and the Magic Show at the Amphitheatre (behind the little temple on Wo On Lane, which on a routine day does brisk business with its excellent foodie haunts - several of which have popped up in the past year).

The Rubik's Cube performance will be a very exciting stage on the route to the Rubik's Cube Asian Championships 2008 at KidX in Ocean Terminal, Harbour City next month, when Hong Kong contenders (the city is second in the best record timings for the 3x3) will compete against candidates from seven countries in the region.

The outdoor stages are outside the Cavern pub, and near the LKF sitting out area and the new 7-Eleven.

Meanwhile at Wo On Lane there will be the booths for Rubik's Cube, face painting, nerf shooting, Thomas & friends, Hot Wheels (recommended for six to nine year olds) and VTech electronic games. There's even a leapfrog booth.

Every year this street of stalls for children provides an exciting and enjoyable family day out, and promises to put the kids to bed in a blissed-out exhaustion that makes the carnival well worth the trip.

Electronic games are much beloved by the little ones and popular games such as V.Smile Winnie the Pooh, Thomas & Friends TV Learning Centre and Nitro Junior Notebook will all feature.

In one exclusive promotion this year, carnival visitors will be able to enjoy 10 per cent off lunch and dinner by presenting their Toys 'R' Us card at selected restaurants (such as Kyoto Joe, Indochine 1929, 2121 Bar and Baci Pizza). This, of course, will add excitement in the best carnival spirit seeing as there will also be so many food stalls outside offering tasty snacks from all around the world to sample.

Toys 'R' Us' flagship store is in Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui. The new look store is at Sha Tin accessible from phase 3 of the MTR station. But if you leave the toy shops nearest you next weekend, and come to explore LKF instead you can be assured of making many delightful discoveries.

Ms Ma said: 'We love to work in Lan Kwai Fong. There are lots of people, it is lots of fun, and it provides an open environment where there is much flexibility and freedom to run events.

'We judge success by the number of people we attract and the level of engagement we are able to create. We get a lot of very positive customer feedback and delighted smiles from kids and that always makes it worth it every year,' she said.