Illuminate Adelaide Review - Universal Kingdom: The Next Era
★★★★☆
A Blanck Canvas’ dinosaur graveyard | Illuminate Adelaide
When: 5.30 - 8.30pm, Thursday 3rd - Sunday 20th July
Where: Adelaide Zoo
Experience this interactive blast from the distant past, through the marvels of modern technology and creativity at Illuminate Adelaide’s Universal Kingdom: The Next Era at the Adelaide Zoo.
With installations by creative studios A Blanck Canvas and Erth Visual & Physical Inc, and backed by SA Power Network, this exhibit is a feast of sights and sounds primarily aimed at a younger audience, but with plenty to enjoy for the adults in the crowd too.
Session intakes are scheduled an hour apart, but once you’re in, you can stay as long as you want until closing time at 8:30. This turned out to be quite handy as my friend and I arrived at the 5:30 session and stuck around until close to 8.
The experience begins with you walking through the ribs of a giant dinosaur skeleton pulsing with light, before presenting you with so many different types of attractions. On the visual side, there was a geometric triceratops statue and the marionette pterodactyl flying in place, both of which were life sized. Meanwhile, on the interactive front were things like the paleontology dig-site where children carefully dug up dino bones, and the baby dino puppets operated by Erth staff, were all equipped with fun facts about the species they were caring for.
Unfortunately, I seem to have missed out on the most striking parts of the night: the human-sized t-rex and two kakuru puppets roaming through the zoo… But not to worry, we still saw amazing stuff! My personal favourite part was the baby puppets, they were just adorable, while my friend preferred the captivating flight of the pterodactyl.
Earth Visual & Physical Inc’s kakuru puppets | Adelaide Zoo
From just my experience, the exhibit has already been proven to be extremely popular. Though not so much to be claustrophobic, the zoo was pretty packed with crowds from the very start of the evening, right to the very end. And even if some pathways were a bit more squishy than others – especially with the abundance of prams – it was quite easy to navigate the grounds.
Despite the clear success of the exhibit, there were just a few minor drawbacks involved. A couple of lackluster attractions, like Lights Action Dino, were glorified photo ops – and poor ones at that. The food available for purchase at the Fig Tree Cafe was also quite expensive, but that is almost expected when going to the zoo.
So, was it worth it? I would say so. $36 isn’t necessarily cheap, but when it gets you over two hours worth of enjoying a night out looking at pretty lights and incredible art? With dinosaurs?? I would definitely recommend it, especially for someone with a young child – though there is plenty to enjoy for all ages.