Giant Bray water slide opens today
Last week we told you how the organisers of Bray Summerfest were planning to build a huge slip 'n slide as part of their festivities.
The slide opens this morning at 11am and measures in at a whopping 90 metres long.
Construction on the attraction started around 6.30am yesterday, with volunteers painstakingly placing bales of hay down the sides and covering it all with tarpaulin.
Organisers told breakingnews.ie the build took about six hours to complete, and both volunteers and journalists used for safety test runs.
Inspiration for the slide came from a similar event held in Bristol in May. Artist Luke Jerram came up with the concept and it’s his vision Bray Summerfest are following.
An amazing 100,000 people signed up for the Bristol event and Jerram’s only condition to copy his plans for the slide was to make a donation to an African water charity – which Bray Summerfest organisers have done.
700 lucky people will fly down “the biggest-ever outdoor slide of its kind in Ireland”, on top of a li-lo, at a thrilling 25km per hour between today and tomorrow.
Demand for places stretched the server of the Bray Summerfest website to its limit as 9,000 hopefuls signed up for a chance to take part.
The 700 sliders were drawn by computer lottery and will be the recipients of the coveted "golden tickets" entitling them use the attraction.
People from all over Ireland signed up – and there was even interest from the UK and France.
The suds and water will be at the ready tomorrow and we have to say it looks like amazing fun. Organisers have promised to send us video and pictures from the event
Testing of water slide at Bray Head #brayheadslide @Failte_Ireland @eastcoastfm @bray_ie pic.twitter.com/CNAE609I7X
— David Forde (@DForde1969) July 11, 2014
We will add them here as soon as we get them for you to see.
