'A Wild Affair' a Hit at Stone Zoo [PHOTOS]

"Rain, rain, go away" was the mantra Saturday night as the Stone Zoo prepared for the eighth annual A Wild Affair, a tasting event featuring nearly two dozen local restaurants that took place alongside the bears and monkeys, flamingos and llamas that call the zoo home.

According to Brooke Wardrop, Director of Communications for Zoo New England and , "[A Wild Affair] started in 2005 as a celebration of our centennial and has been a very popular event and always draws huge community support." 

Wardrop and her staff sold more than 500 tickets for the event. They also secured silent auction and raffle gifts from more than 150 donors throughout the Greater Boston area. All proceeds benefited the zoo.

Participants that paid the $50 entrance fee experienced food from 23 regional favorites such as Burton's Grill and Pisa Pizza that were set up throughout the zoo. Added to this main course, party-goers particpated in live and silent auctions, competed in zoo-themed games to win prizes and danced the night away with music from local bands Blue of a Kind and Talk to the Hand. There were also various gifts to purchase to commemorate the event like the Wild Affair souvenir glass that went for $10.

Helping out Wardrop and her staff were between 30 to 40 volunteers who swept away early rain waters, commanded the auctions and generally, aided guests throughout the night with both food and animal information.

Wardrop and her volunteers also explained that, as luck would have it, a special surprise was birthed just that Saturday afternoon at the zoo, as one of the flamingo's eggs hatched just hours before A Wild Affair began. It was the third flamingo hatchling so far this season.