The entrance of Children's Fairyland. Credit: Amir Aziz

It’s springtime, and Children’s Fairyland is reopening!

Early this morning, families bundled up in warm clothes braved the morning foggy and wet weather to visit the park for the first time since it closed on December 6 because of the pandemic. The park is now open Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m to 12 p.m and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The hour closure in between allows staff to perform a deep cleaning. Masks are mandatory for visitors and there are hand sanitizing stations throughout the park. The gift shop allows for one social bubble inside at a time.

Kymberly Miller, executive director of the park, told The Oaklandside that the park is fully staffed and doing better financially than it was last year.

Fairyland is able to reopen thanks to the March 9 Alameda County Public Health Department announcement that the county is now in the “red tier,” which means certain indoor and outdoor activities like museums, zoos, aquariums, and theme parks are allowed to resume at 25% capacity.

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Azucena Rasilla is a bilingual journalist from East Oakland reporting in Spanish and in English, and a longtime reporter on Oakland arts, culture and community. As an independent local journalist, she has reported for KQED Arts, The Bold Italic, Zora and The San Francisco Chronicle. She was a writer and social media editor for the East Bay Express, helping readers navigate Oakland’s rich artistic and creative landscapes through a wide range of innovative digital approaches.

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Amir Aziz is a photographer and videographer from Oakland, California. Using photography as his primary medium, Amir documents life and times in his community and the rapid changes in his environment. He's covered music events and social justice movements in the U.S. and abroad for local and international publications. Before shelter-in-place, he traveled to over 10 countries producing multimedia projects juxtaposing the experiences of locals elsewhere to those in his hometown of Oakland. Amir hopes to continue to bridge the gap between African diaspora communities and oppressed groups in the world through multimedia storytelling.