Sanrio Puroland, also known as Hello Kitty Land Tokyo, is hoping for backing from fans worldwide to be able to celebrate its 30th year anniversary despite the many challenges it is facing because of COVID-19. The theme park has created a crowdfunding platform appealing for donations to support the production cost of the special birthday event, which will be held on Dec. 7.
The well-loved theme park, which first opened its doors in 1990, has been giving joy to around 50 million visitors since its inception. Although the current global pandemic has put a strain on its operations and greatly limit the range of live events, Sanrio Puroland wants to go ahead with its plans to create a special birthday celebration, and is looking for support from its fans and friends around the globe.
Sanrio Puroland has been implementing strict safety measures against infectious diseases. After five months of complete closure, it started a partial and careful reopening making limited tickets available only on lottery basis.
Since September, Sanrio Puroland has been turned into a reservation-only facility, i.e. entrance tickets have to be purchased online in advance of the visit. The theme park put many procedures in place to ensure both visitors’ and staff members’ safety and comfort.
“It has been a challenging year and we had to adapt our entire programme and workings to meet the requirements of the times, which has not been easy. But our mission to bring joyful energy to our visitors has not changed. We are still a unique place where people can connect with our lovable Sanrio characters and simply relax,” explained Yuya Makizato of Sanrio Entertainment’s Sales Department.
“We had to re-evaluate our plans for the celebration of our 30th anniversary and after much thought decided to try to make the project happen through crowdfunding and with the support and cooperation of our Sanrio friends and followers,” he added.
Sanrio Puroland has set up a crowdfunding site where sponsors are invited to support the anniversary event and choose the amount they would like to donate, which starts from as little as 1,000 yen. All sponsors will receive a special “thank you” gift, mostly in digital format, as a token of the theme park’s gratitude.
As of Nov. 8, the donation reached 9,949,058 yen. Sanrio Puroland aims to collect 15,000,000 yen by Nov. 17.
More information about the crowdfunding campaign can be found on this website: https://motion-gallery.net/projects/spl-ohl - PR
