Creative Lead in Epsom

The Escapade Group is looking for a hands-on, imaginative Creative Lead to own the look and feel of our events across all of our sites — designing immersive, on-brand environments and then physically bringing them to life.

From seasonal events to holiday programmes, you will take an approved idea, design it and create it — dressing, painting, styling and finishing event spaces to a high standard. This is both a design role and a maker’s role: you set the vision, and you create the magic.

You will work across multiple sites, adapting your creative to each space and audience. Site teams and contractors handle the structural build — you lead the visuals, theming and finish.

You will also be the welcoming face for our events field hire at Hobbledown Heath, meeting and greeting leads and hosting site visits before passing them to our operations team.

The Role

• Lead the creative vision and visual identity of events across all our sites.
• Design themed environments, immersive photo points and scenic schemes from concept through to a deliverable plan.
• Personally dress, paint, decorate and style event spaces, props and photo points to a high finish.
• Source, make and prepare props, décor, signage and finishing touches.
• Adapt your creative to each site and keep a consistent, on-brand look group-wide.
• Work alongside site teams and contractors who handle the build, focusing on the visual and decorative finish.
• Meet and greet events field-hire leads at Hobbledown Heath, host site visits and handle enquiries, then pass them to the operations team.
• Provide creative direction for entertainment, performer styling and character look-and-feel.
• Work within agreed creative budgets and manage the storage and reuse of creative assets.

About You

• Highly creative, with strong visual instincts and originality.
• Hands-on and practical — as happy with a paintbrush as with a design.
• Organised, balancing creativity with deadlines and budgets.
• You are likely to have experience in events, attractions, theme parks, theatre, set design or experiential environments, with a portfolio of themed or immersive work.
• You can take a concept from idea, through design, to a physical, installed result.
• You are comfortable being hands-on and on-site during design and install periods, including working at height and manual handling, and confident working with teams, contractors and external clients.

What Success Looks Like

• Distinctive, immersive, on-brand event environments across all sites.
• A consistently high quality of finish on everything you dress and paint.
• A clear, consistent creative identity for our events group-wide.
• Creative designed, dressed and ready on time and within budget ahead of each opening.
• Field-hire leads met, hosted and passed on professionally.
• Strong guest engagement and great feedback on the look and feel of our events.
• Creative assets well managed, stored and reused effectively.
• Year-on-year improvement in creative standards and guest impact.

If you love taking an idea and physically making it real — designing immersive worlds and then working to create them — we’d love to hear from you.

About Us

Escapade Group Limited operates the ultimate indoor and outdoor adventure parks. Currently home to three exciting brands — Hobbledown, Kidspace and Gripped — across five UK sites, the business has ambitious plans for continued growth and expansion.

Our portfolio includes Hobbledown Adventure Farm Park & Zoo in Epsom, Hobbledown Heath alongside Gripped, the South’s best adrenaline park, and two incredible Kidspace indoor play and party venues in Croydon and Romford. Together, we welcome over 900,000 visitors each year and host more than 7,000 birthday parties annually. In April 2023, we proudly added Watermouth Family Theme Park & Castle to our collection, taking our visitor numbers to over 1 million guests per year.