A new Family Entertainment Centre in Northampton makes its debut this Friday. The New York-themed attraction, ‘Caddy Shack’, will house mini-golf, bowling, and darts, as well as food and drink areas with live sports on. The FEC is designed to appeal to people of all ages, and to be enjoyed day or night.
The new £2 million venue is connected to the Gravity Active Entertainment Centre above, which is currently still closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gravity Active Entertainment Centre will reopen this Friday, in tandem with the grand opening of Caddy Shack.
The mini-golf attraction was due to open this March, but the coronavirus put a stop to any potential opening as the UK, like much of the world, went into lockdown. The opening of the attraction has been a long time coming for Gravity co-founder Michael Harrison.
“We’re really excited, we could have opened with the rest of the leisure places last Saturday but we never managed to get it open the first time around so we wanted to make sure everything was right when we do open,” he said.
Gravity has spent the last two years fitting out the former Gala Bingo site in the style of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, complete with the famous yellow cabs, sidewalks, and dusky sky. The mini-golf course will run through the centre of the location, with a bowling alley and darts zone either side. Another section of the FEC will house a stage for live music, ready for when venues can bring in musical acts again.
Gravity co-founder Michael claims that the Caddy Shack is perfectly equipped to handle the new world of social distancing, with spaced out tables, golfers sticking together in groups, and bowling alleys separated enough to avoid the spread of disease.
Caddy Shack is launching in Northampton with 60 others planned around the country, but Michael believes the town is the perfect place to start. “This is the first Caddy Shack that we have developed, we really believe the demographic of Northampton with its students and great local economy,” he said. “We believe it’s the best place trial the first of what will be 60 across the UK so it’s a real first for Northampton.”
