Customer appreciation and family fun is what Zoofest is all about.
The 5th annual event takes place July 30 at Discovery Wildlife Park.
“It's a customer appreciation event where we allow Innisfail residents to come in free until noon. If they've never been to the zoo and they want to come and check it out they can do that at no cost,” said Doug Bos, co-owner of the park. “It's a fun time to get local residents out.”
Zoofest has become a popular summertime event noted Bos, one that is now an annual tradition on the Heritage Day weekend. This year it will include a free pancake breakfast from 10 to 11:30 a.m., bouncy castles, free face painting, toonie hotdogs and popcorn, snow cones and activities for the entire family.
While thousands of visitors from all over Alberta make stops in Innisfail throughout the year, Zoofest has been designed as a family oriented event to encourage local residents to enjoy Discovery Wildlife Park and experience a variety of wildlife up close.
This year people will see a couple of new additions to the park.
“We have a couple of baby mule deer that are probably about a year old now,” said Debbie Rowland, park co-owner. “They had come in late last fall.”
In addition, two new white-tailed deer were born at the park earlier this spring around the end of May or early June.
“We had a couple of baby white-tailed fawns born this spring. They are getting big quickly and they'll be losing their spots in the next month or so,” added Rowland, noting they don't attempt to breed animals at the zoo. “Most of our animals we don't breed because we take in the orphans. We didn't get any orphans this year, which is actually a good thing.”
Some of the new sights at the Discovery Wildlife Park include several more trees that have been planted, a new parking lot with more spaces available, and renovations to the concession.
“We totally renovated the inside of the concession and all of the flooring has changed, so it looks really new and nice,” said Rowland. “We did plant a lot of trees (this past year). There's probably about 1,000 out there now.”
Rowland said Zoofest is the perfect time for families to come together and enjoy some quality time on a long weekend in summer.
“It gives local residents a chance to come out, see the park and see what it is all about,” said Rowland. “It helps build awareness locally as well as to thank people for their support.”
Debbie Rowland, park co-owner
"It gives local residents a chance to come out, see the park and see what it is all about. It helps build awareness locally as well as to thank people for their support."
