Charlie’s Chocolate Adventure – Kew Gardens Easter Festival

Charlie’s Chocolate Adventure: Roald Dahl’s best-loved tale Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was brought to life at Kew Gardens to celebrate 50 Whipple-Scrumptious years of Charlie and Willy Wonka.

17 days, 8,000 handmade Belgian chocolate bars, 136 tellings of Revolting Rhymes and 3 giant Everlasting Gobstoppers later, Creative Junction and the Roald Dahl Museum and Storytelling Centre completed Kew Gardens Easter Festival .

Charlie’s Chocolate Adventure saw record numbers of visitors come along to Kew Gardens to join in the celebrations for the 50th birthday of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Activities focused on the four ‘Rooms’ from the book plus the Great Glass Lift, as well as a Whipple Scrumptious Plant Hunt highlighting all the amazing botanical ingredients of confectionery grown at the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Activities were delivered in partnership with the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre and Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – The New Musical.

– The Chocolate Room: Budding chocolatiers worked with the splendiferous Chef from the Roald Dahl Museum to decorate their own chocolately creation and create fantabulous packaging.

– The Nut Room: Whilst on the hunt for cheeky squirrels, families also took part in drawing, colouring and craft activities.

– The Television-Chocolate Room: Enthralled audiences listened and joined in with Roald Dahl stories and poems told by the storytellers from the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. There was also an exclusive screening of the Quentin Blake animation from the hit musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

– The Inventing Room: Visitors joined Willy Wonka and the chief Oompa-Loompa as they sang and played instruments. A chance for everyone to get inventing, dream up some confectionary concoctions and add to Wonka’s giant Everlasting Gobstopper.

– The Great Glass Lift: A hands on session to discover the plants in different types of confectionary and learn about Kew’s work in cacao conservation.

Read an online review of Charlie’s Chocolate adventure here