Irn Bru Carnival

I went with my sister & 6 year old nephew and was secretly pleased they have height restrictions on certain rides.
As we’d paid in advance we spoke to one of the security guards who have us our sheets of tokens and told us to skip the queue which saved a lot of time.
The carnival is spaced over three rooms, one of which is a soft play area for under 12s. It’s worth having a quick wander round to get your bearings if you’ve young children with you as you can plan how to use your tokens.
Pros: you can spend the whole day there. It is fun for all the family.
Cons: be prepared to queue as the afternoon progresses, there wasn’t as many token rides for younger children this year and we could never get in to the soft play area as it appeared to be constantly full.
Tip: if eating there go to the food place just inside the entrance to the building. it’s quieter, the food is good and you’ll pay just a tad more than the greasy vans inside the carnival.

I’ve lived in Glasgow for several years now but had only been to the Irn Bru Carnival one other time. I’m really glad I came by this year. To sum it up, they managed to get a lot of rides into an indoor space, had a wide variety of treats, and they managed the crowds pretty well for how busy it was.
The admission price of £13 does feel steep, but it includes 10 tokens. Not only that, but each ride is actually only one token (the exception being the one outdoor ride that costs a token + £1.50 or just £2.50). This may not seem like a big deal but after recently being to a carnival in London with all rides I wanted having token prices of 6 – 8 tokens, I very much appreciate knowing that all rides are the same price.
It was busy but it’s the cost of going to a major event on a weekend and it was 3:30 when I arrived. I suggest booking online, although the queue for those who had prebooked also took 15 minutes.
I know I’ve been to events in the SECC before but this managed to make the building feel more huge than I realised it was. Maybe it was because they put the room all together but I’m still shocked at how large it was and how much they managed to fit it.
It was incredibility busy for the afternoon and into the evening but it did taper off into the night. It does mean that if I wanted to go again, I’d probably go later. It was nice to evenly space out my use of the ten tokens.
I admit that going here mostly did make my want to go to a larger park with proper rides. In a limited space, everything they had was mostly the type of ride that spins a lot, but I can’t hold it against them. It was still a very fun day.

Took the kids to the Irn Bru Carnival here on 3÷1÷15 absolutely horrendous.
* Had to queue for 45 minutes just to get in.
* £13 per person kids & adults both same price absolute rip off!
* Every ride was at least 30 minute queue to get on, some more than 1 hour!
* Food & drink horrendously expensive £4.00 for a nasty frozen burger!
* Typical traveller games rigged not to win.
* Half the things inside take only cash and not the tokens your given.
* Rides not very good, either for young kids up to 5 or teenagers 14 up nothing for kids inbetween.
This was our first time going and will never return.

I first read about the Irn-​Bru Carnival over instgram when researching fun events in Glasgow during Christmas time. The Glasgowlifestyle IG account stated «it’s not officially Christmas time until you go to the Irn Bru Carnival» so I was defo looking forward to checking out and gave me something else to be excited about around Christmas time. The carnival only opens in the SECC for a few weeks of the year through December and January, this years ran from December 20^th until January 12^th. We decided to go on January 5^th, a week before it was due to close, as we thought this would be a quieter time than around Christmas, however, even then it was very busy so I guess it’s probably pretty full most nights. We went in the early evening, around 5:30, the place does open from 12pm to 10pm though so there’s plenty of time every day to check it out. I’d say our time was probably the most ideal as it still gives you plenty of time to go on all the rides and check out everything the carnival has to offer. I think if you went there from opening to closing you’d find yourself extremely bored! I was excited to visit this carnival as it was also the first time I would be inside the SECC, until this point I’d only been able to see it in passing. I’m also a big fan of theme parks/​carnivals so I was curious to see what all the fuss was about with what they advertise as the biggest indoor carnival in the UK.
I have to say the building up close isn’t the most impressive, especially with the Armadillo and the new Hydro making it really look it’s age, but inside it was pretty cool and modern. There was a large Kamikaze type ride outside of the main entrance to get people into the carnival spirit, however, if you know anything about Glasgow weather on an early January night, you’ll understand why I gave that one a miss and headed inside! Going through the doors there’s a large entrance/​waiting area with blue hanging icicle lights surrounding you & a café on your left with a few newsagents on your right for drinks and snacks etc. There’s also a coat room on your left the further you go (£2 a coat). This area is huge and you’re not even in the actual arena yet, so it instantly gives you an idea of how big the actual place is and why it’s the UK’s largest indoor carnival. In the waiting area you will also find the ticket centre, there’s three or four of these which saves the lines from getting too long. Our tickets were £12 each which wasn’t too bad when you see what the carnival has. The waiting area has multiple entry points to the carnival which is very helpful. As soon as I entered the carnival I thought it was really cool. The place is huge and it has far more big rides than you think they could get in there! I wanted to give it a walk around before trying any rides just to see what the whole place had. As you walk round you’ll see that the corners and back walls are pretty much filled with food trucks and café’s which offer a large variety of junk food… perfect for a visit to a carnival! The place smells of pure donut oil, so if you get sick from the rides the smell might now help! There’s also a bunch of amusements and fare games for kids or adults to try scattered throughout the building.
After seeing all of this I thought it would be cool to go on some rides as that’s always the main reason for going! At first I went on ‘Drop Zone’ which was like a smaller version of the ‘Ice Blast’ in Blackpool, this was really fun and a good way to start (went on that like 8 times, couldn’t even look the ride attendant in the eyes after the 5^th time because he probably thought we were nuts!) I then went on ‘Speed Buzz’ which was a pretty cool ride too. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the last of the fun I had that night as the next ride I went on, ‘Top Star’, (should of called it «spin your brain out and stomp on it» as it was the most horrible ride I’ve been on in my life!) It didn’t look so bad watching, but when you’re on there the whole ride is horrible. It spins you upside down for long periods at vicious speeds to the point you think you’re going to black out on the ride, and you still feel these affects long after you come off! I tried to do a couple of things after that and make the most of the night, but to be honest, after that ride I kinda just wanted to go home due to the way it made me feel. All in all, I’d recommend this as a fun night out as something different, there’s maybe another eight or nine rides along with the ones I’ve mentioned. Whether it’s couples or families, I’m sure most people would have fun here without it being overly expensive (unless those damn claw machines reel you in! Damn PG tips monkey with a Santa hat, I’ll get you one day!) and it’s pretty ideally located whether you’re driving or taking public transport.