REVIEW: PHANTOM PEAK

AG
Jun 22
4 min read

We Step into the New Burning Blimp Festival at London’s Only Immersive, Open World Adventure

We step inside London’s only immersive, open world adventure, in a fully realised Steampunk town, brimming with eccentric characters, mysteries, cocktails and food.

Everybody’s story in this extraordinary, Wild West adventure is unique.

Our four-hour mission starts with the first of many cocktails in our hands, when the doors to this 30,0000 sq ft secret world open and the town’s outlandish Mayor Pocket welcomes us into a real life, Wild West video game, which is Disney meets Westworld.

The wooden frontier town is complete with lakes and waterfalls. We pass a grinning Priest by a giant platypus water feature; a postman anxiously collects mysterious letters strewn across the floor and a Neo-Victorian woman steps out of her shop and purrs “hey cuties” as our children pass.

Our group makes its way inside the main building, where a gaggle of curious characters bang tambourines and strum banjos, welcoming us to ‘The Burning Blimp Festival,’ Phantom Peak’s latest season - their world evolves every 3-4 months, with a whole new set design, quests, food and drink options, and opening and closing ceremonies.

We explore the fantastically detailed set - before the opening ceremony, when all will be revealed - trying to work out what lies ahead.

There are surprisingly excellent blue cheese and Southern-fried chicken burgers, plus hotdogs from the kid’s menu from the RoboChef, washed down with fresh cocktails (and mocktails for the children) from the Thirsty Frontier Saloon, where we interact with the characters.

We explore two floors inside, bulging with graveyards, carnivals, mirror mazes, undertakers, a memorial to “Furbish” - a surreal, Furby toy inspired character - a mysterious laboratory and an art gallery.

There are intriguing characters, clues, buttons, secret doors and screens everywhere, but we have no idea what it all means… yet.

Then the opening ceremony explodes around us. It’s suddenly apparent that many in our group are uber fans of this cult-like experience, dressed in Steampunk attire, singing along and performing the dance routines with its stars.

Mayor Pocket sets the scene at his grand podium, welcoming us to Burning Blimp Festival and inviting us to save the residents of Phantom Peak via the Jonassist website on our phones, which will navigate us through various quests and storylines, interacting with live actors, exploring sets, and using technology like Jonavision and Jonagraph to uncover secrets.

Each booking in our group is working on one of 10 quests.

Our family starts ours at the town noticeboard, finding clues from the posters. Along the way, we are given hints and tips on our phone and answer questions, to access the next stage.

We head to the office of the loveable and Bacchanalian Mayor Pocket, where he tasks us with preventing an evil clone from taking over from him.

And so begins a breathless journey, to crazy labs, typing codes into Steampunk-style screens for more information, locating brain specimens, whispering to shopkeepers and taking on challenges and mini games until we finally return to Mayor Pocket and our seven year old daughter - high on adventure and drama - convinces him to drink “Jonacola” to reverse the effects of the cloning.

After a dramatic scene, where our children watch, slack-jawed as Mayor Pocket downs the drink and its dramatic effects are played out, our family has completed the first quest and he rewards us with a special trail playing card.

The experience can be completed at your own pace - most visitors complete one to two trails per visit - and we intersperse ours with cocktails, food, brilliant homemade ice lollies for the children overlooking the fresh water lake, and assorted mini games.

There’s a carnival, to play traditional fair games; or the Miramaze, where we crawl in almost darkness through laser tunnels, up ladders and into ball pits. You can hook ducks from the lake or throw hoops, winning badges and surprises along the way.

The experience is brilliantly tailored to all ages. Our drama-loving kids excitedly search for clues, and enjoy interacting with characters, completing fun games, exploring secret rooms, mysterious doors and licking lollies while being rewarded with badges in this otherworldly experience.

Couples knock back cocktails and giggle as they complete the tasks. And we meet numerous, Steampunk-clad regulars, who have a Star Wars-esque knowledge of this sprawling world and developing plots, and return each month to work their way through the quests to collect each, hallowed card.

We take a break, and the children devour an excellent waffle dessert, before we start our second quest, behind the red velvet curtains of its atmospheric movie theatre.

Realising we won’t have time to complete it, the cinema owner sneaks out to award our children the playing card for that trail - they are thrilled - before we are summoned back inside for the grand closing ceremony.

It’s an eccentric and euphoric cacophony of dancing, singing and merriment, with actors ad-libbing songs about our (deeply chuffed) children mid-dance, and the Mayor celebrating us all for our efforts.

And we leave, high on adrenaline and adventure, returning to a much greyer world in the suburban normality of Canada Water, with only our trail cards to prove that it wasn’t all a delicious, Steampunk fever dream.

Phantom Peak, Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 7PJ. Adults £35 - £55 pp. Kids £20 - £25 pp