Play cafes and amusement centres in Adelaide and SA can finally reopen today

South Australia’s play cafes and arcades can finally reopen - just in time for the school holidays.

Josh Baker, co-owner of Funtopia at Sefton Park with Max, 8, Cooper, 9, and Charlie, 11. Picture: Mike Burton

Hundreds, if not thousands of kids are expected to flock to play cafes and recreation centres on the first day of school holidays today.

Scores of centres, including Bounce, AFL Max, Latitude and Funtopia, were forced to close, along with gyms and dance studios, on November 17 – two days ahead of South Australia’s lockdown “circuit breaker”.

But while gyms and fitness studios were allowed to reopen shortly after, family centres have been left waiting.

Josh Baker, one of the co-owners of Funtopia, said he was excited to open the doors and welcome families back in an environment they can feel safe.

“We’re going to give it the biggest crack ever,” Baker said. “We’ve been busy trying to rebook functions and rehire our beautiful team. We had well over $100,000 worth of functions booked in this period and we had to cancel every single one of them.”

Play centres are required to adhere to 1 in 2 sqm social distancing, “which is fantastic for us because we’re such a big facility”. “Our cleaning regime is second to none,” Baker added.

Funtopia only plans to close on Christmas Day.

Funtopia co-owner Tracey Lee said she expected “probably thousands” of kids to head to amusement venues on their first dayof holidays.

Owner of Play’n’Fun at Christies Beach, Shay Kennedy, said she was “so excited” to open today, and is happily booked out having organised a visit from Father Christmas.

Owner of Treehouse Adventure Centre in Mt Gambier, David Walker, said he was “over the moon” to open.

“The staff are super excited to get back to work,” he said. “Christmas has come early this year.”