Ok, so I’ll just go ahead and own up, shall I? When I saw this Tweet below from Lies at Non Stop Destination on Monday night about a Pop Up Owl bar coming to London I had no clue what she was talking about. However I was instantly intrigued, I mean, how can any sentence that has the words owl, bar and London in, not be worth further investigation?
After checking out Annietheowl.com, I let out a little ‘squee!’ and got just a teensy bit excited at what I found – obviously I then just had to get in touch with them straight away to find out more information!
So what exactly is happening?
UPDATE: This event has now passed.
Well, for one week only on the 19th-25th of March 2015 there will be a Pop Up Bar in Soho, London. Annie the Owl and her friends will be in attendance, giving a few lucky Londoners the opportunity to sip cocktails and get up close and personal to our big eyed friends.
For £20 a ticket you get a maximum 2 hour session at this sit down event and receive 2 non-alcoholic drinks during that time. All profits from the ticket sales will be donated to a sanctuary charity dedicated to the protection of owls.
Now meeting owls like this is already a bit of ‘a thing’ in Tokyo, and there have been a few concerns raised about the owls in captivity there, so one of my first questions was to ask about the welfare of the birds. I’ve held an owl before and they are incredible, but much as I’d like to repeat that experience I obviously also want to make sure I’m meeting happy owls.
It was therefore a great relief to receive detailed information of the rules and precautions in place for this event and it’s clear that they are taking the welfare of the animals very seriously. Each owl will even have a professional falconer for the evening to look after their best interests, so it’s like they’ll have their own little ‘bodyguard’, phew!
All the owls belong to a professional falconry centre and are accustomed to being around people – I guess you could call them working owls because they have attended public events before. That said, guests will only be able to approach the birds under controlled circumstances and if it no longer is considered appropriate to allow people to touch the birds, then you will no longer be allowed to. End of. The birds come first.
The event also takes place between 8:30pm and 2:00am – this is because owls are nocturnal and it will help them be more comfortable in their surroundings. Great care will also be given to things like noise and background music being kept at low levels so that little guys like this one stay happy.
Now, please forgive me while I have a rather pedantic moment with the Evening Standard. For the record, Darwin is not a bloody Hedwig lookalike ok? Darwin is a Barn Owl, Hedwig is a Snowy Owl – they look very different and a Snowy is something silly like twice the size – they are completely different breeds. Sheesh, seriously!
Ahem, ok, I feel better now, thanks. Rant over, back to business…
With the event lasting only a week and ticket demand going through the roof (the amount of ticket requests has already gone up over 20k since yesterday, eep!), a ballot is being held to make it fairer for everyone who wants to attend this rather unusual treat.
Be sure to visit Annietheowl.com and enter your details for a chance to buy up to 4 tickets. It doesn’t specifically say when the ballot will close but winners will receive instructions by the 16th of March when they’ll be able to choose their dates and purchase tickets.
Last but not least, Annie the Owl did ask me to also say a special thank you to LOCAPPY who have helped cover costs for this event – plus they’re owl fans!
Are you an owl fan? Will you be trying to get tickets to this rather unique Owl Pop Up Bar?
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