The Bishopstone Big Day Out 8th June 2013


So, where do I start when writing up the Bishopstone Big Day Out?

With the numbers of people that came? The event itself? The amounts of money we raised? The hard work of so many people? The beautiful weather? Not normally short of words, I am struggling to put down on paper the good feeling of being part of such a special day. We were overwhelmed by how many villagers supported the event on the day, thank you all for coming and supporting the event in the way that you did.

Thanks to Norman Barter for opening the event which was made even more poignant knowing how poorly he has been and now ( thank goodness) seeing him on the road to recovery.

Any event like this takes a lot of time and effort. The Bish Bash team is an amazing group of people. To any of you experiencing our meetings at the pub on a Friday night, may notice that there is a lot of noise (normally me trying to keep some level of control!) but by magic out of the chaos comes order and a level of enthusiasm not often experienced. I would like to thank them all for the serious amount of effort, time, fun and hard work, Ali, Lee, John, Madeline, Dan, Andy, Sarah, Angie, Linda, Steph and Jo. Top team!

There were also others that came into their own on the day, John Thorne and his fabulous golfing competition, Graham Dimmer and his giant teapot!, Chris Sexton and his ever popular tombola, Peres and family for supporting the Skittles and lastly to Sarah Blank who co-opted a sub team to organize and run the beautiful Food Fest tent.

The event started with gusto on the Friday, Ali, Lee, John, Dan and Andy stepping up to move hay bales into position, erecting marquees, supplying and connecting the lights and electricity, the list goes on, followed in the evening by a well earned barbeque and beers, thanks Ali for the supplies.

With our site plan in hand, Saturday morning was a burst of activity ferrying people and their stalls into position. One notably change was the Bishopstone Parish Plan stand, noticing that if we put them in their planned space they would have been in the direct firing line of the archery….Hmmm

Sarah’s Food fest tent was taking shape, decorated with pretty flags and wild flowers, table cloths covering the tables ‘New House Jane’ had lent us from Leadenhall school, once finished it really was a quintessential English affair, thank you to you and your team for such a wonderful addition. Madeline’s rhubarb sold out in a flash, there were cakes galore, peanut butter and the Kiddies Bake off, won by Harry Gooch’s bread, second to Bailey Curtis and his Banofee pie, ably judged by Bill from the pub.

On to the event itself, I am writing this on Tuesday still waiting for my voice to return. I don’t think I was trying to compete with the microphone….other’s might think differently!

The kiddies assault course and gladiator ring were free as we paid for them from the money we raised from the Christmas Party, the same for the Zumba master class, Chris and his Disco and Barely Legal who took centre stage in the evening. A big mention to the Carnival Club for providing entertainment in the afternoon they are now a special part of any Bish Bash. We will be giving the club a donation.

Thank you to everyone for donating such wonderful prizes to run a fabulous raffle. Not one prize was bought, all were provided by Bishopstone residents. We sold out of raffle tickets and raised an amazing £600 on the raffle alone.

The Hog Roast sold out again, even though they bought twice as much as last year…answers on a post card please? Trojan from the Gladiators turned out and was quite happy to take on anyone in the ring although I understand he had no takers, I wonder why! Ice cream sales were up, with a donation to us of £60.

We raised an amazing amount, £1529.00 with a little more still to come. As a result we will donate £500 to the STAB magazine, £500 to the Chalke Valley Link Scheme and the rest, once other small costs and donations are subtracted will be held to run the next event, probably around Christmas.

Funnies to finish…….

A 12 metre by 6 metre marquee being turned sideways seemingly by itself!

Dracula dancing in the sunshine!

Ali and Co running for cover when I threw sweets in the air at the end of the children’s tug of war!

PC Pete charging 50p to anyone that wanted to be breathalysed!

Marion x

PS One person sent me this comment which I would like to share with you, ‘that it is great that my children will grow up as I did with great memories of our pretty cool village and that’s what counts.’ Just about sums it up I think…..