Backyard Adventures – A child’s dream brought to life

It’s the backyard a child dreams of, and it’s open to all children, as well as the young at heart. Backyard Adventures, the best birthday party venue in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), was the childhood dream of owner Nakisha Williams-Jardine, which she and her brother, Aaron Williams, brought to reality five years ago, when they were just 26 and 21 years old respectively.

Backyard Adventures has now become a household name for Vincentian children, who frequent the park, especially during the Summer, Christmas and Easter vacations. The park boasts several attractions, including the most popular Pirate’s Cove, a water play area. There is also a bouncing castle, swings and slides, and Jungle Kingdom, which features slides, crawl spaces, a trampoline and ball pool. A go-cart track, which is the only feature open to adults, occupies one section of the park.

Williams-Jardine said that as a child, she noted the lack of activities for children in SVG. Having travelled a lot and visited several theme parks, she came up with the idea of opening the playground. Her brother wanted to do the go-cart track, so they merged their ideas and Backyard Adventures was born. Public reception of the park has been mixed, with some patrons complaining about the cost of entry and the fact that the go-carts must be paid for separately; but the young entrepreneur is not deterred.

“We have some very dedicated patrons that come. We’ve seen children grow up at Backyard. I remember seeing this little girl, in particular. She used to come as a baby and now she’s walking; she’s a toddler. We’ve had some really good criticism and we try to grow based on that,” Williams-Jardine said.

Backyard Adventures won the Best of SVG award for best place to have a birthday party. The birthday party packages range from $300 for 10 children up to $750 for 30 or more children.

“I think it’s popular because of the different attractions that we have. It’s like no other in St Vincent. I mean, you can’t go wrong. It’s got water, you have your bouncing castle and then you go home and you don’t have to clean up a mess. We do that for you,” Williams-Jardine said.

Asked about plans for expansion, Williams-Jardine disclosed that while they would like to, they have limited space at their current location, as well as other considerations. “It’s a rented facility, so there’s not much that we could put down. If there’s anything that we would be able to expand on would be something that is either inflatable, or something that could be put down and taken away if necessary. If the economy permits and if the budget is right, because something like that takes a lot of planning and financial planning… We’ve got to make sure that when we do get it here we are able to fund it.”

Williams-Jardine expressed gratitude to Backyard Adventures’ customers for their dedicated patronage and constructive criticism. She noted that it takes a lot of sacrifice to run the park, as she and her bother also have full-time jobs, in addition to working at the park on weekends and holidays. However, they believe the sacrifice is worth it.

“The most satisfaction is seeing the kids’ faces. That is the reason why we do this every weekend. It’s the smile on their faces. They walk through the gates and they’re like ‘Oh my gosh!’, and then they cry tears to leave at 6 o’clock. That’s when you know you’ve done something right.”

Backyard Adventures is located at Arnos Vale and is open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 1 – 6 p.m.