After an eye-opening first visit to Wake the Tiger earlier this year and during a recent visit only a week ago we learned of the plans for a Wake the Tiger Expansion that is set to launch in February 2024!
2023 was a very successful opening year for Wake the Tiger including winning Bristol Life’s Platinum and Leisure & Tourism Award in March 2023 and more than 200,000 visitors stepping through the portal.
The plans were set in motion to expand the current attraction in St. Philips with an aim to open in February 2024. As of last week construction was already taking place round the back of the attraction in what for me is the UK’s most themed attraction.
What is Wake the Tiger?
Wake the Tiger is an amazement park where guests step into a portal into the world of Meridia. There’s things to see, interact with and explore. It’s the ultimate escapism is an art walk-through experience from the creators of Boomtown Fair, a festival circuit that is renown for themed spaces and immersive experiences.
Meridia is a realm where certain challenges face the residents much like in our own world. Pollution, ocean plastics and more plague the world of Meridia so there’s a strong message to be said whilst exploring this new realm.
It’s a world that is beautiful but fragile, much like our own and Wake the Tiger highlights the issues, provokes ideas and finds solutions to give us all hope for the future.
Beautifully crafted through storytelling and interactive characters you meet along the way Wake the Tiger was one of my favourite attractions to visit this year.
We’d absolutely love to see more interactive elements added to the world of Meridia, more hands on things and more unique ways to interact with the environment they’ve created.
The creativity for a project like this is endless so we’re so excited to see what they conjure up!
You can check out my full review of the attraction HERE
What is Meridia?
The world of Meridia is down to just 5% of its natural resources (put into perspective, our world sits at 50%), and is seemingly abandoned, except for a port area in one of Meridia’s twelve realms.
Here lies an old paint factory, which the Meridians are using to stage wild experiments in an effort to breathe life back into their world. They’ve coined this The Dream Factory.
The Meridians have organised themselves into four Guilds, each with specialisms in the elements; earth, air, fire, water. To ensure they have a balanced number and always a fresh perspective focused on each element, they rotate regularly, carrying with them skills from their previous Guild.
They explore the wider world of Meridia in search of ideas, artefacts, answers, hope.
Recently the Meridians have spotted people appearing within The Dream Factory, at first startled and confused, before feeling a sense of familiarity.
The Earth Guild realised that the trails these people take are coming back to life, and not just growing, but glowing. And there are threads connecting all parts of The Dream Factory, seemingly fungal networks called mycelium.
After analysing the air around these trails, the Air Guild declared these people Pollinators, bringing spores in with them, something only Meridians had read in books from yesteryear.
Alchemists in the Water Guild used these spores to clear the water of oil; a first in their lifetime.
And radios and TVs the Fire Guilds have been working on, are starting to transmit signals which the Pollinators confirm helped them discover Meridia.
For the first time in a long time, the Meridians feel a wave of energy that all is not lost, and they set about a plan to rewild their world once again.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Wake the Tiger expansion right here on Back to the Movies as we eagerly await our revisit in 2024.
