Home North West Dad-of-two building inflatable playground inspired by his kids in Burnley

Dad-of-two building inflatable playground inspired by his kids in Burnley

Bouncing into Burnley: Calum Heyes has taken ownership of the former Pegasus Drop Zone on Craven Street to bring a new inflatable playground to Burnley (pictured with his daughter Amelia)

A dad-of-two is converting a former trampoline park into Burnley’s first inflatable playground, with his children being the inspiration behind the business.

Calum Heyes, 33, has injected a six-figure investment into the former Pegasus Drop Zone on Craven Street, which unexpectedly closed in September 2017, leaving some local families without a children’s party venue.

As Managing Director of Air Unlimited, Calum explained that his nine-year-old daughter Amelia and two-year-old son Hudson were the inspiration behind the original business concept – a trampoline park in Liverpool – and this time was no different.

He said: “As a father of two young kids, I was getting really fed up with the same old play centres. I wanted to create a play park that my children would like, and that would cater for them at every stage as they grow up.


“Air Unlimited Burnley will have a different feel to the Liverpool site in that it’s purely an inflatable playground – the likes of which the town has never seen before. We’re hopeful that we’ll be open in time for Christmas and we’re working all the hours possible to convert the building and make this happen.”

Calum got his hands on the keys in late October, giving the team an extra few days to begin the renovation. Work is now underway to create the 600 square metre inflatable playground by extending into an adjoining unit which Calum has also acquired.

He said: “On our first day at the unit, a mum popped her head in to see what we were up to. She said ‘Please tell me you’re reopening! My kids are going crazy without somewhere to burn off energy’ and that just said it all to me.

“Burnley needs this as a focal point for families in the area. There’s so much good stuff happening in the town and we’re really looking forward to being a part of it.”

To make sure customer satisfaction remains as high as possible once Air Unlimited Burnley opens, Calum has handed the reins to his daughter Amelia to recruit 10 young reviewers, known as the #TesterTribe.

The 10 children will help Amelia rigorously test the inflatable playground once it’s ready to go in a matter of weeks, and all 10 will receive lifetime passes for the playground to thank them for their reviews.

To enter the Tester Tribe competition, parents and guardians are being asked to nominate their child, explaining why they’d be the perfect tester, on the Air Unlimited social media profiles, using #TesterTribe:

On the Facebook page @airunltdburnley
Tweet to @airunltdburnley
Use the Instagram handle @airunltdburnley

The deadline for entries is Friday 30th November.