Fairytale Town leaves ribbon-cutting to the kids, and adorable mayhem ensues
Chaos erupted at Fairytale Town on Saturday morning, when more than a dozen scissors-wielding small children were invited to do the honors at a ribbon cutting.
The master of ceremonies, park executive director Kevin Smith-Fagan, beckoned the kids to approach a red-and-gold ribbon stretched across the entrance of the new Story Center building. Mere seconds later, as the children lined up, he told them he was going to count down from 10.
He was too slow. The ribbon hit the ground before the word “seven” left his mouth after at least one snip-happy youngster had at it.
Ever so slightly ahead of schedule, the Story Center was open for business.
The brand-new center with its synthetic thatched roof was built by the same Sacramento company, Otto Construction, that made the iconic castle and many of the structures for the park in the 1950s. Fairytale Town has become a Land Park institution, where children 12 and younger clamber around in storybook-themed play structures and gardens.
The building will eventually be home to a permanent set of play areas, all designed to encourage creativity and storytelling. One corner will have a small stage, one corner will have a reading nook. The mid-size room will offer writing prompts and things to color. But on the day of the grand opening, the park operators decided to “make a splash,” as Smith-Fagan put it, with a temporary dinosaur exhibit instead as they wait for the stage and other features to be completed.
Inside, an untold number of children darted around too quickly for a reporter to count them.
A table contained an outline of a T. rex and invited visitors to remove the bones with tongs, “Operation”-style; an informational sign told those old enough to read about the destructive practices employed by 19th century American fossil hunters; a local paleontologist with a booming voice, Breahna Fogg, regaled a short audience with dinosaur facts. Dinosaurs and birds, Fogg said, “are pretty much cousins” — tell your friends.
Claire Foster, 7, explained that her favorite part of the exhibit was the mask-making station. She made a triceratops mask and colored the horns pink, though she said she prefers “the dinosaur that flies.”
Foster’s mother, Sharon Foster, said she and her other children, Martin, 9, and Edward, 4, come to Fairytale Town often and showed up for the 9:30 a.m. ceremony early (which was good thinking, because Smith-Fagan, facing a easily distracted crowd, launched into his short speech at 9:29).
Martin said the ceremony had been fun; Edward had been delighted to come. Speaking to a reporter, Sharon Foster pulled a little scrap of ribbon out of her handbag, salvaged by her kids. The souvenir might have looked like a discard to some, but on this day, it was magic.
This story was originally published November 12, 2022 at 1:28 PM.
