Ballie Ballerson

As a (fairly) newbie to London I am still of the mindset that if Time Out features anything quirky and Instagram worthy I HAVE to try it out. I’m a sucker for a good experience and an awesome story to share, plus I will never stop being amazed at how many weird and wonderful things this incredible city has to offer.

Last week saw me and my girls from University visit the latest pop up craze to hit London: Ballie Ballerson. Picture this: a house DJ overlooking a giant colourful ballpit filled with 200,000 thousand balls, a bar serving cocktails made with 90’s sweets (with about a 10000% markup since I last bought a Dib Dab aged 9) and hey presto, you have yourself a sold out event until the end of 2016.

This particular pop up is located in Dalston, of course, where would be more fitting for such a quirky event? For those that live in South West London like myself it is a lengthy 70 minute journey, but almost worth the effort.

As soon as I arrived the first thing I noticed was how much smaller the ball pit was than I had anticipated, the second thing I noticed was that everyone was floundering around with their coats on because their tiny cloakroom had vastly underestimated how much space they would need to accommodate everyone.

But those factors aside, the ball pit was incredible. We really didn’t appreciate just how good we had it when we were children – it’s the ultimate destresser! I fully reverted back to my 5 year old self, sinking deeper into the ball pit until I was completely submerged before jumping out and scaring the living daylights out of my friends. Even after an hour of prancing around in there, my best friend had to drag me out..

…to the small  bar upstairs (don’t bother with  the food, they only serve 3 different rabbit sized options of meat, veggie and sweet balls). The bar was a delight, they included almost every sweet from our 90’s childhood (except foam shrimps – much to my disappointment) and served it with a generous helping of said sweet with a well matched concoction of spirits and juices.

If you’re looking for a couple of hours of good old fashioned fun and letting out your inner child, mixed with some cocktails so sugary they make you feel high, then head to Ballie Ballerson in Dalston before it sells out!

Tickets (which have now increased from £5 to £15, but still worth the price) can be found here: https://www.designmynight.com/london/whats-on/party/ballieballerson?t=tickets