Review: Phantom Peak's The Burning Blimp Festival (Summer 2025)

With the Burning Blimp Festival, Phantom Peak once again proves why they're the best immersive experience this side of the Ridge.

Photo: Alistair Veryard

The platypus-loving town of Phantom Peak has become a mainstay of London's immersive scene in the three years since it first opened. Over the last 12 seasons, the show's constantly updating selection of trails, all delivered through regular seasonal updates, has kept its detailed, lore-rich story progressing at a rapid pace and given guests a reason to return to the town month after month without ever running out of things to do.

With nearly 150 individual story trails now under its belt, Phantom Peak has also amassed a loyal fan base and continues to take audience feedback onboard to improve on each previous iteration of the show. With its latest season, the Burning Blimp Festival, Phantom Peak has once again outdone itself and delivered its strongest experience yet.

Regulars to Phantom Peak will be familiar with the show's tried and tested formula. Each new season brings with it a fresh batch of story trails, through which guests explore the 30,000 sq ft town, interact with Phantom Peak's 15+ residents, engage with the numerous pieces of off-kilter tech, and solve puzzles over the show's 4-hour duration. While the focus of each storyline differs wildly from trail to trail, each one is packed full of humour, endlessly silly, and leads you down a path far more bizarre, irreverent and surreal than the start point ever suggested.

Photo: Alistair Veryard

For those keen to collect all of this season's trail cards, which are given to guests upon completion of each storyline, it'll take at least 3 visits, and that's without giving yourself time to engage with the various other distractions on offer around town, which include a trio of carnival games, fully functional in-world arcade machines, communal competitions, and, of course, the varied food and drink options.

This season, the town is celebrating the third anniversary of the blimp crash that supposedly killed former Mayor Furbish. Visitors to Phantom Peak's opening season will recall the aftermath of said crash, when much of the town's indoor area was blocked off by the wreckage, and during 2024's Festival of Innovation season, it was revealed in one of the trails that Furbish was actually alive and well, hiding in the mines beneath the town and waiting for the right moment to return.

Photo: Alistair Veryard

While Furbish's 'death' was a seismic event within the town of Phantom Peak in more ways than one, the biggest consequence to come of it was enabling its current leader, Jonas, to take over and kick-start the events that have been unfolding over the last 12 seasons of the show. Despite Jonas overseeing Phantom Peak from afar, their impact is nevertheless still felt, and whispered talk of their master plan - dubbed The Great Undoing - has been hanging over residents' heads for several seasons now. Will Furbish's return thwart Jonas's scheme, or has the damage already been done? Only time will tell.

As ever, many of Burning Blimp's new trails engage with pop culture, subverting and parodying real-world personalities, media, and products. Fans of Severance won't fail to notice the similarities between the Apple TV+ show and the events of 'Pocket Change', which has Mayor Pocket (David Carter) battling against a clone of themselves (referred to as their 'Hottie') for dominance of their shared mind, and the Furby-inspired 'Unbox Me, Coward' concludes with one of the most surreal moments in the show's history - quite the achievement, given how off-the-wall storylines often are at Phantom Peak.

Following on from last season's Wicked-inspired trail, 'Unpopular', it's the turn of Les Misérables to get the Phantom Peak treatment in 'Less Miserable'. With three full-length parody songs scattered throughout the trail, which focuses on the ongoing power struggle between JONACO and The Resistance, it's an ideal trail for West End fans, as long as they can handle the numerous digs and swipes made at the genre that are also littered throughout.

Photo: Alistair Veryard

Phantom Peak's continued embracing of puppetry, which has only ramped up with each passing season, has given the show's exceptionally talented cast a chance to show off their range as they take control of the town's felt-based residents.

On one side of town, General Store owner Datchery (Tatiana Nicholle Davis) unwittingly finds themselves in the middle of a love triangle with the Miss Piggy-inspired Lady Oinkerton, with insults and raised voices rapidly escalates into something akin to a Punch and Judy show. Elsewhere, fan favourite Sherlock Bones (puppeted by Jimmy Roberts, who plays Lovehart) is on the verge of cracking their latest case wide open and needs visitors' help to connect the dots in 'No String Attached'. Giffard (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), the former Canal Bar owner who's climbed the corporate ladder to become a JONACO lawyer, also finds themselves commanding a Colonel Sanders-esque puppet of former Mayor Furbish as they continue to deal with their ongoing family struggles in 'Finger Lickin' Good'.

Photo: Alistair Veryard

Alongside the physical (and puppet) cast, Phantom Peak's continued refinement with each new season has seen them lean far more into filming bespoke video content for the town's Videomatics and Jonavisions (button/dial-operated screens that display pre-made videos when correct digits are entered). While many videos feature the show's regular cast, former cast members Danny Romeo and Tibet Boyer, who now both serve on the show's writing team, work overtime as prominent on-screen talent, taking on numerous roles including an unhinged toy reviewer, a murderous cult leader and a thuggish goon. These engaging live-action videos lend themselves perfectly to the show's unique sense of humour and ramp up the ridiculousness of each trails contents even further.

After 13 seasons of Phantom Peak, it's easy to take the show's unique design for granted. Upon launch in 2022, the trail format Phantom Peak adopted was a massive departure from the immersive, open-world norm most commonly seen in Secret Cinema and Punchdrunk productions. Within Phantom Peak, every one of the show's townsfolk remains in one place throughout the experience, meaning there's no risk of being unable to complete a storyline because they've run off behind a locked door, never to be seen again, and without any big set-piece moments outside of the opening and closing ceremony, which everyone is gathered together for, the show removes the sense of FOMO so often built into the design of other open-world immersive experiences. All of the show's best moments are available for every group at any time by completing the trails and interacting with the show's cast one-on-one.

Photo: Alistair Veryard

Those who have been paying attention to the show's overarching narrative in recent seasons have likely noticed that this initial, multi-year chapter of Phantom Peak's story appears to be coming to a close. Ahead of tickets to last season going on sale, it was announced that it was due to be their final at the show's current Canada Water venue. Thankfully, this closing season has been pushed back to a later date due to an extension on their lease of the venue. While we're still awaiting details on exactly what the future holds for Phantom Peak once it leaves behind its current home, it's clear that there's plenty of life left in the town yet, even if the Great Undoing sees it changed forever.

Phantom Peak is far and away the best immersive show London has to offer. An unrivalled experience that continues to deliver season after season, it's a hilarious, engaging and deeply rewarding for both regular and first-time visitors.

★★★★★

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Phantom Peak's The Burning Blimp Festival runs until 7th September 2025 in Canada Water. To find out more and to book tickets, visit phantompeak.com

For more reviews of immersive experiences like Phantom Peak's The Burning Blimp Festival, check out our recent Reviews.