UK Theme Park Awards 2025: How Alton Towers, Drayton Manor & West Midlands Safari Park fared
For the sixth year, the British public were able to vote for their favourite theme parks in these prestigious national awards.
The UK Theme Park Awards had 22 categories in total, including Best New Attraction, Best Theme Park for Families, for Toddlers and for Thrills, the Best Seaside Park and Theme Park of the Year. New categories for this year included Best Use of IP in an Attraction, Best Queue Line Experience or Pre-Show, and Best Integration of Technology in a Guest Experience.
334,371 public votes were combined with the scores from the judging panel to determine the winners in each category. Of the 35 theme parks that received nominations, 24 won awards.
The awards ceremony was held at Wicksteed Park on September 18, and it was attended by more than 180 representatives from the UK theme park industry. The event was hosted by Naomi Wilkinson, TV presenter and children’s entertainment favourite, and Dave Payne, renowned presenter and master of awards ceremonies.
The biggest winners in the awards include Alton Towers and Drayton Manor in Staffordshire (with 9 and 6 awards respectively), Blackpool's Pleasure Beach in Lancashire (4), LEGOLAND Windsor in Berkshire (6), Paultons Park in Hampshire (10), and Chessington World of Adventures and Thorpe Park in Surrey (with 2 and 4 awards respectively).
The other British theme parks winning multiple awards include Adventure Island in Essex (3), Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight (3), Crealy in Devon (3), Fantasy Island in Lincolnshire (4) and West Midlands Safari Park in Worcestershire (4).
Also winning awards this year: Adventure Coast Southport in Merseyside (1), BeWILDerwood in Cheshire & Norfolk (1), Flamingo Land in Yorkshire (1), Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach in Norfolk (1), Pleasurewood Hills in Suffolk (1), Sundown Adventureland in Nottinghamshire (1) Wicksteed Park in Northamptonshire (1) and the various Gulliver's Theme Parks (1).
Winning awards for the first time are Bottons Pleasure Beach in Lincolnshire (1), Drusillas Park in East Sussex, (1), Folly Farm in Pembrokeshire (1) and The Big Sheep in Devon (1).
There were also awards for Best Established Content Creator and Best Developing Content Creator, which includes bloggers, vloggers and podcasters, as well as those creating content on other platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
Kelly Richardson, Director at Wicksteed Park, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen to host the 2025 UK Theme Park Awards, which truly was an amazing event, showcasing everything that is unique and innovative about UK theme parks.”
“Wicksteed Park is the home of children’s play and has been providing fun for the whole family for more than 100 years, so was the perfect venue and it gave guests the chance to experience everything that is amazing about the Park, including a ride on our wonderful Waterchute.”
Lawrence Mancey, Marketing and Technology Director at Paultons Park, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded 10 awards this year at the annual UK Theme Park Awards, including the prestigious Theme Park of the Year Award. These awards are testament to the hard work and dedication of our whole team at Paultons. We're looking forward to building on our success next year with the opening of our first inverting rollercoaster, Drakon, in our new immersive world Valgard: Realm of the Vikings opening May 2026."
The full list of winners is available at ukthemeparkawards.com
