This morning, Candytopia, the candy-coated experiential adventure that brings a dreamworld candy factory to life, has officially opened the doors of their newest location at 767 Market Street in San Francisco. After a successful Los Angeles run in Santa Monica in early 2018 and a recent opening in New York City on August 15, Candytopia is thrilled to bring its immersive confectionary wonderland to the heart of San Francisco with a limited-run engagement.
Candytopia is a peek inside the sweet and twisted world of famed celebrity candy artist, Jackie Sorkin, and it was created in partnership with her co-founders, events, and production design expert Zac Hartog, CEO of ZH Productions, and retail veteran John Goodman, a longtime San Francisco resident. Goodman, CEO of Candytopia shared, “We are so excited to bring the magic of Candytopia home to San Francisco. This city has brought me so much joy throughout my life, and it’s been a dream of ours from the start to open Candytopia in San Francisco and evoke that same emotion with our unique candy-filled adventure. We have a lot of fun updates in store for the new location and we can’t wait to share them with the incredible Bay Area community.”
I was invited to the media event on Tuesday at Candytopia and I have to say it is amazing! We walked through the doors to see candy sculptures with plaques that had information on how long it took to make them. We stopped in one room where we were given the simple reminders before going on the escalator downstairs.
Simple Reminders:
- Do not Run, or you may trip over a marshmallow or frighten the gummy bears
- Stay with your party
- You can touch all of the exhibits, but do not attempt to eat them (it tastes disgusting)
Once we received our reminders we got our first taste of Candytopia with a clock that comes down and gives you a piece of candy. We were on our way down the escalator to a room that looked like Candyland! It is bright and cheerful and had swings and a playhouse with a slide. It has Unicorns with rainbow poop (my boys missed that). It is sensory overload! There is so much to see, it is hard to focus on one thing.
The next room was a museum of pictures adorning greats like Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka); Steve Jobs; Mona Lisa; Prince.
We stepped in the next room with Bigger than life size balls on a cloud covered screen. Of course, my boys loved this room. There are cameras in the rooms that you can scan your ticket with to take a picture of you in that room. It would make it Instagram perfect! In this same room, there are two other spots to take pictures, one is to make it look like you are going down a drain, and the other looks like you are on a trolly car with a unicorn. We missed these completely, we were having so much fun with the balls.
The next room is Confetti! Who.does.not.love.confetti?! This room was fun, there was confetti everywhere, and I think I still have confetti in my hair today! My boys were able to get candy and throw confetti and there were flying pig unicorns with tutus on that fart confetti, yep, I said it. That's what they do. My youngest who is 7 could have stayed in this room for hours just to keep making that happen!
The last room was seriously our favorite. We walked in to be greeted by Mork (Robin Williams) saying Nanu Nanu on the wall. There was a Golden Gate Bridge See Saw in this room and a marshmallow pit! The boys loved the marshmallow pit. Jackson figured out he could launch marshmallows at his brother so that was his new favorite spot. There is a large marshmallow ball drop in the center of the pit.
The exit is a lighted escalator to a candy shop filled with candy and Candytopia memorabilia.
This was such a fun experience. For those looking for a quirky Art Museum, this is your place. It is fun for kids, It is fun for adults, It is fun for all ages!
Candytopia is now open at (767 Market Street, between 3rd and 4th Streets in San Francisco). Tickets (which must be purchased in advance) officially went on sale to the general public on August 1, 2018, and are expected to sell out quickly. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit Candytopia. We made a quick trip into the city on Bart getting off at the Powell station and we were right there.
TICKET PRICES:
Adults: $34
Kids (4-12): $26
Kids (3 and under): Free
*Macaroni Kid Pleasanton was hosted for this review, all opinions are that of this author.
