I spent five magical hours at Chester Zoo with this half-price summer tip

While Afterglow at Chester Zoo offers colour and carnival energy, the summer celebration offers an opportunity for animal-lovers to see the zoo in a whole new light.

For two weeks each year, Chester Zoo stays open later for visitors, offering families a cheaper option for exploring the UK’s most visited zoo with a summer celebration called Afterglow.

The annual event sees the zoo stay open until 8pm, with evening-only tickets available to purchase for a cut price.

Never one to turn down a bargain - especially one that includes giraffes - I piled my partner into the car and set off towards Cheshire after my Saturday shift.

It’s a strange feeling, walking against the flow of people to enter an attraction when most are leaving for the day.

But that’s my favourite part of this annual event, it’s an opportunity to bypass some of the crowds and experience the zoo when most visitors are exhaustedly piling their tired and sticky children into their car and heading home.

If you’ve only ever experienced Chester Zoo on a weekend in the middle of the summer holidays, treat yourself to an early finish during a working weekday and head over for the evening.

Even during my Saturday afternoon visit, by the time 6pm rolled around, the long shadows brought an air of calm upon the zoo and I found myself no longer having to tousle with tiny children to press my own ice-cream covered nose up against the glass to gawk at the orangutans bathing in golden hour.

That’s not to say Chester Zoo has failed to invoke the festival-themed experience Afterglow advertises.

If cocktails and dancing is in your wheelhouse, there’s plenty of that too - with festival-themed drinks and food, silent discos, comedy shows and pop-up performances from puppeteers and stilt-walkers.

But personally, I really dislike crowds and really, really love giraffes.

Having missed the event last year, this was also my first time exploring the (kind of) new Heart of Africa zone.

The massive site is one of the UK’s largest zoo habitats ever created, spanning more than 17 football pitches and has been designed to recreate grassland habitats found across central Africa.

The showstopper is a vast open savannah area, where giraffes, zebras, antelopes and ostriches all live together side-by-side.

Not that I noticed, because the moment I saw a giraffe I entered a such a state of child-like wonder that I remember little else and was brought round in an aviary sometime later by the sound of an emerald dove.

While Afterglow might promise cocktails, colour and carnival energy, its real magic is the slower moments that let you see the zoo in a new light.

Because nothing really beats watching your favourite animals bask in golden hour while the rest of the world is stuck in traffic on the commute home.

The event is running until August 16, with evening-only tickets starting from £14 for children and £21 for adults which will allow families to visit between 3pm and 8pm.

That’s around half the price of full day tickets (£28/£38), which - as of this year - do include entry to the Afterglow festivities for the duration of the event.

Afterglow evening-only tickets are only a fraction pricier during peak days (Friday to Sunday) with evening tickets costing £15 for children and £24 for adults.

Tickets are available online at chesterzoo.org/afterglow