Whitchurch Festival

FIREWORKS & BONFIRE NIGHT:
SATURDAY 30th OCTOBER 2010

Once again the Meadow hosted a fantastic display of fireworks.
What a great celebration of what life in Whitchurch is all about - people of all ages enjoying themselves.
With pumpkins lining the entrance, a sizzling BBQ, and the oohs and ah's of young and old alike, a great time was had by all.
Around £1000 was collected towards the Good Causes.

A full report with pictures is on the town website.

Grateful thanks go to Trevan Cocking for the fantastic Halloween pictures:
EVENT PICTURE GALLERY

Below is a statement on the event from
the Festival Committee Chairman Rob Dunlop

••••••
This was a great evening to cap a LOT of behind-the-scenes hard work by a lot of awesome local volounteers !!

We estimate that around 1,500 people were there to see the show and even though the event itself was FREE it has raised around £1,000 which will be put 'in the pot' towards this years Good Causes and to help with other events next year. The evening itself went really well and considering we had the ever-looming threat of rain we can't thank the local community enough for coming out in force to support the event.

The pumpkins looked great and I heard the pumpkin carving at the White Hart was a success (Unfortunately, I couldn't make it down myself as we were working all day prepping the Millennium Green). Huge thanks to the Rising Fives, the White Hart and Whitchurch Arts for everything 'Pumpkin' !!

3 favourite moments .... good question !

I suppose the fact that the rain held off as long as possible was a moment that I enjoyed repeatedly through the event, the finale to the Fireworks display was literally jaw-droppingly awesome and is definitely in the top 3 along with the comments I received from people who travelled in to Whitchurch to see the event and who were 'swept away' by the genuinely friendly community atmosphere throughout the evening.

A lot of people put a lot effort into making this event possible and I'd like to thank the following people:

•Clacys Garage, Browns Joinery, Andy & Will Frost, Gareth Evans and Bill Judge for supplying the vans and spending 2 gruelling days driving around collecting, delivering and moving the wood for the bonfire;a truly awesome effort which left them all understandly 'knackered' by the finish.
•Phil Cooper, Les Jordan, Ross Jones and Gary Hunt for organising, physically building andlighting the bonfire - (Ross and Gary also worked right up until the last minute before they had to dash off, get washed and tidied and imediately start prepping the BBQs.)
•Pag and Marianne from Twangfest for helping serve the burgers.
•James Thorogood (Albright International) and Andy Walmsley for arranging, building and errecting the Site lighting (A great job).
•Ali Freebrough for being the on-site Licencee and running the 'Beer Table'.
•Jill Webb for allowing us to use their Gazebos.
•The Rising Fives, the White Hart and Whitchurch Arts for everything 'Pumpkin'.
•The Millennium Green Trust, Whitchurch Arts and the White Hart for working with the Whitchurch Festival Committee to make the entire afternoon/evening a truly awesome event.
•Pyrotastic for supplying the fireworks and for managing the Mortars on the night (what can I say ... fantastic quality fireworks !!!).
•Tevor Cocking (Eternal Images) for officially photographing the event.
•St Johns Ambulance for being on-site to cover First Aid
•'Sonny Jims' Ice-cream truck for being there and selling Ice Creams !! :)
•To Neville Bright, Jim Thorogood, Andy Walmsey and Ian Fenton for laying out and lighting the fireworks (in the dark and rain !!)
•To Brian Shrubsall and Brian Allen for everything they did on the day to help set up the site
•...and not to forget thanks to the 'The Kings Arms Crew' who came with me to the Millennium Green at approx 8:30pm on Friday to help free a stuck truck !!
I'd also like to thank each and every member of the Whitchurch Festival Committee for the sheer effort and belief they have shown not just for this event but for everything they have done throughout the year with a specific mention to Mr Neville Bright who was 'Head-of-Shed' for this event and who has put his heart and soul into organising and driving every aspect of the event forward. A fantastic job by all !!!

As I mentioned earlier there were a lot of people who were literally exhausted by the time site had been cleared and emptied and none of this would have been possible without them.

There are so many people to thank and I sincerely apologise if I've left someone off the list. If anyone feels I have missed anything please PLEASE shout and let me know.

Cheers,

Rob.