A Child Enjoying One Of The Rides At The Jerudong Park Playground.

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Jerudong Park (JP) Playground received more than 10,000 visitors during the Hijrah 1431 long weekend, when a majority of the Bruneian population enjoyed three non-working days last week.

"Our busiest night was last Saturday night. We had about 5,300 people which was pretty impressive actually. The playground was full of families and kids. It was pretty good," said Russell Finney, general manager for Jerudong Park Country Club and Playground.

In an interview with The Brunei Times, Finney said that on December 12, the Saturday night when the playground reintroduced its free entrance and new card system for the rides, the playground saw an attendance of some 2,500 comprising mostly of families.

"JP is one product. We've done very well in the last weekend with family groups. I was there most Saturday nights," said Finney, who spent time observing family groups. "The screams of excitement from the kids playing on the rides, it was a really good atmosphere."

"The thing that was noticeable is that there was no trouble, no hassle. That is what the playground is trying to achieve. It's a nice place to be with all the families," he added.

The number of visitors are calculated by a split system between the playground and Setia security personnel.

"The two Setia guards are assigned to: 1) do a headcount; and, 2) crowd control. Although really, we don't need them for crowd control," said Finney.

He explained that while the playground focuses on gathering statistics from the card sales and ride attendance, the Setia guards were responsible for doing the headcount through the same method that cabin crews use to count passengers in planes.

There is only one entrance and exit point to the playground and that is the main entrance across from the Diamond Arch. The guards will provide the total number of visitors by the end of each night.

We started (the new system) on December 12, and we are two weeks into the new arrangement. From our point of view, we are very happy with the way the public has accepted the new arrangement."

"Operationally, the Brunei team is doing a good job. The staff are feeling pretty good the way the park is being popular again-they have been with the park for a long time and have seen the not so good times as well as the good times," he added.

Finney also said that the playground will not be having any special programmes on December 31, 2009.

"Next weekend, the situation with New Year's eve (Roman calendar), is that it's a Thursday and it's malam Jumaat (so) we will observe the closing time of 10.30pm," he said.

The playground will be open until midnight on Friday and Saturday. "We believe that the Empire Hotel will be having fireworks (on New Year's eve). There's also talks that they'll also have another fireworks on Saturday. The Empire fireworks is a bit of a tradition so we won't cross the line," he said, when asked whether JP will be having a fireworks display.

He predicts that during next week's long weekend, a lot of people will head to JP before making their way to Empire Hotel to catch the fireworks display which is only 5-10 minutes drive away.

"It's a bit silly if we started fireworks (during the same time), it would be too much."

However, Finney said that the playground is planning to do a fireworks display to celebrate Brunei's 26th National Day on February 23 next year.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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