Balboa Island Museum’s Fun Zone festival returns Friday

This Friday night the Balboa Island Museum is shutting down the Balboa Fun Zone for its second annual Fun Zone Festival.

“We did this last year. The Fun Zone was recently acquired by the Pyle family. We met with them … and it was just this collaboration of minds. ‘Why don’t we do an event at the Fun Zone?’ That’s how it started last year. It just snowballed into a large event,” museum executive director Tiffany Pepys Hoey said.

Roughly 300 guests attended the festival last year, which raised an estimated $50,000. Organizers say they expect roughly the same number of attendees this year but have set $100,000 as their fundraising goal.

The festival will take over the Balboa Fun Zone grounds starting at around 6 p.m. Tickets will continue to be sold through the end of the day Thursday at bimnbfunzonefestival.com.

While the museum regularly holds smaller events throughout the year, the Fun Zone Festival is its largest fundraiser, according to Pepys Hoey.

Pepys Hoey said planning for the event started in the summer.

All the food vendors have been consolidated into one location in addition to the carnival games and museum showcase. Attendees should expect the 1980s cover band, the Reflexx; stilt-walkers, a magician and an open bar.

There will also be a silent auction.

“We wanted to do the same type of event this year because everybody had such a blast last year,” said Pepys Hoey, adding the event is for adults. “It didn’t matter if you were 19 or 92. Everyone had a blast.”

All proceeds from the auction, underwriting and ticket sales will be going toward the museum and its programs. Major underwriting came from the Argyros Family Foundation, in addition to other local donors.

The museum was founded in 2000 and has moved at least three times. Pepys Hoey said it is the hope of the museum to have a “forever” home. It moved to its current location on Marine Avenue in late 2018. The move greatly expanded the museum’s capacity but is not permanent.

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