Is your fear of spiders ruining your life? Maybe you’re an expectant parent not wanting to pass your fear to your child? Or a student about to leave home, unable to cope with the thought of facing arachnids alone? Perhaps your whole family is ruled by fright? If your fear of our eight-legged friends verges on the extreme, London Zoo wants to help you.

To celebrate 30 years of our successful Friendly Spider Programme, we’re searching for the 30 most terrified arachnophobes in the UK, to face their fears during a special anniversary event on 27 May 2023.

If you think you’re one of the 30 most frightened arachnophobes in the UK and would like to take part in this special fear-busting event, tell us how your fear affects you below.

T&Cs apply.

Applications close at midnight on 3 April 2023. Minimum age is 7 and anyone under the age of 18 will need an accompanying parent or guardian. You must be able to travel to London Zoo on 27 May 2023. Participants will be selected based on their answers below.

T&Cs

  • 25 Participants will be selected based on their answers. Five will be picked at random. 
  • You will need to sign a media release form on arrival. This will be share with you ahead of time if you are successful. 
  • You can only participate if you happy for your story to be shared through the media. 
  • Ticket are not refundable. 
  • Tickets cannot be exchanged, transferred, or resold. 
  • Visitors will not be allowed admission to the Zoo without a valid ticket. 
  • For the safety of visitors, ZSL reserves the right to refuse admission, and may, on occasions conduct security searches. 
  • Please check all your tickets on purchase, as mistakes cannot always be rectified. 
  • ZSL reserves the right to amend pricing, opening times and access to any area entirely at their discretion and without prior warning, without being obliged to refund or exchange tickets. 
  • ZSL cannot guarantee that all animals will be on show at the Zoos throughout the day. For various reasons, including animal welfare, certain animals may be off show to the public without prior notice. 
  • ZSL cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage to personal property brought to the Zoo. 
  • Visitors may be filmed, recorded or captured in photography for marketing or security purposes during their visit
Changes to the experience
  • As we informed you in the description of the experience on our website, we may alter the experience on any given day due to animal welfare, health issues, staff shortages, bad weather or changes to the Zoo’s collections, but will ensure that if this is the case, the activity will be replaced with another similar task. We endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum and will notify you as soon as possible if such changes are made. 
  • We may have to change or cancel the date of an experiences for reasons such as the minimum number of participants has not been reached, extreme bad weather, staff shortages, animal welfare issues or force majeure. We will endeavour to notify you as soon as possible if this is the case. Regrettably, ZSL cannot cover travel, accommodation or any other related costs if we are forced to cancel a date.
What to expect on the day

All experiences have a health and safety briefing at the beginning of the session. It is the participant’s responsibility to ensure they arrive on time. It is essential that all participants attend. Please allow plenty of time to travel to the experience, especially if travelling in or near London, so that you do not miss any of this briefing.

Tickets for personal use only

Tickets are for personal use only and may not be sold on.

Informing us about any additional requirements

Whilst every effort will be made to accommodate those with a disability or learning difficulty, due to practicality this cannot always be achieved; please contact ZSL on [email protected] for advice

General Admission ticket required

Standard terms and conditions of entry into the zoo apply for all participants on our experiences. You must comply with our terms of entry and general admission ticket terms. Please visit our website www.zsl.org for full admission terms and conditions of entry.

Children and accompanying adults
  • Accompanying disability carers will be given access free of charge. Free Carer tickets must be obtained in advance and can be purchased over the phone only. Please email [email protected]
  • An adult is required to accompany participants under 18 years old. The adult must bring along a signed guardian consent form (which can be found in the booking information pack). The accompanying adult does not need a ticket (unless they wish to participate too).
  • General admission outside of this experience’s hours is not included and must be purchased separately.