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With Christmas upon us and many families looking for fun and festive entertainment, Silverstone stepped up to provide a light and laser spectacle - and you don't even have to leave your own car to enjoy it!
We were kindly invited to the brand new, COVID safe, Lap Land media preview earlier this month in Northamptonshire and it was definitely a unique and memorable experience. Nowhere else in the UK can you drive on the track at a prestigious racing venue (where the Formula 1 British Grand Prix is hosted) whilst watching such a colourful display.
Silverstone is a twenty five minute car journey from us so we set off at around 6.30pm to get to the event with just over half an hour spare as advised. I had expected big queues for entry but it was well signposted and fast moving. As soon as we pulled up at the entrance gate, with just two or three vehicles in front, our ticket was scanned (you can print the ticket or use your mobile phone) and we were on our way towards the track.
You can head to Santa's Pitstop at this point for the toilets, food and drink or to purchase any light up products, but we were eager to start the experience and had already decided to pick up some hot dogs and loaded fries to watch The Snowman with afterwards.
We were directed by parking staff/elves who were all very friendly, waving and saying 'Merry Christmas', and after a few minutes we were waiting to be signalled forward to begin viewing the lasers. The area just before the actual Lap Land entrance was actually our favourite part as the cute lights in the pits like Santa's workshop, giant snow globes and pretty Christmas trees were all very seasonal and perfect for the kids.
We tuned into Silverstone radio (87.7FM) at this point and after tweeting in some messages with #DriveLapLand and #Silverstone they read one from us and The Mini Mes felt famous for a few moments! Shortly afterwards they played some Michael Buble as we had requested too.
We were at the front of our group and right behind the pacer car. The maximum speed is 5mph so you spend most of the 30 minutes rolling along in first gear which enables you to absorb it all and capture some pictures if you wish. The lasers were great to see, quite mesmerising almost at points. They shine above you as you go through the tunnel, along the floor around you and beside you. There are also some racing cars on show and fire blasts at points but I won't go into too much detail so you can see what it's like for yourselves upon visiting.
Seeing Santa was probably not on the cards for many families this year so it was magical to have him inside a snowglobe along the way. This was quite unexpected. With our windows down you could hear the excitement of little ones in other cars too which was lovely. It would've been nice to have a bit more of this kind of entertainment between the different stages of lasers, or even just some more elves to wave to, so that it was more of an interactive experience. Regardless of this, Lap Land is ideal for car and F1 fans, or just generally as a nice evening out for the entire family.
After crossing the finish line you can either head to the exit or round to the right where the drive in cinema screens are located, depending upon your ticket choice. Prices start from £35 per car for the Lap Land experience and from £50 for the Drive-In movie as well, where you get to see the classic The Snowman. The latter being our option.
Whilst waiting for the other cars to park up, you can play a snowboarding game on the screen via your mobile phone. We all found this quite fun being a very competitive family and after a few rounds I decided to nip off to grab some food quickly as we were all feeling hungry by this point.
There weren't any signs to say how long it would be until the film began unfortunately so I had to risk a quick dash to get something to eat which resulted in me missing the first few minutes. There were lots of different stalls with ice cream, candyfloss etc but there were no hot items left on the menu that we had planned to purchase so we ended up dining out on the way home.
When back at the car to watch The Snowman, we could tune the radio into a different station for the sound which was really handy. It meant we all could hear perfectly well throughout and the screen was big enough for us all to see clearly. It left me feeling quite nostalgic as I'd not seen the film since my own childhood.
The Lap Land experience runs from 10th December 2020 to 10th January 2021 and although the majority of tickets sold out very quickly due to high demand, more have since become available for each date. You can purchase yours on the Silverstone website.
Have you been to Lap Land? What were your thoughts?
Hi, thanks for the blog! How much was the food that you bought? Was it reasonable quality?
ReplyDeleteWe are thinking of doing it this year!
ReplyDelete