A GREAT GALA |
The Gala and Blue Bell Beer festival were a great success and I hope most of you were able to join in the fun at some point or other. In financial terms it was close to an all time record, 42% up on last year, with around £4,500 raised in the "central pot" and by clubs and organisations themselves. Each group that participated (History Group, the Church, the Village Hall, and the Horticultural Society) will take a share of £944.22 each from the pot, which was so healthy thanks to record raffle ticket sales, (top prize of £250 cash was won by a villager, Mrs Ellis of West St.), generous sponsorship (Peter Mitchell Farms, Messenger, Richardson's, and Sharmans) some great sales from the bottle stall (well done Shaun), generous donors and bidders on the silent auction, a bumper entry for the Dog Show, the Quiz, I could go on... Alex and Cinzia managed to cope with huge volumes of beer sold (around 50 casks and umpteen kegs) and food cooked. I gather Alex and his little team heroically cooked 360kg of chips alone over the weekend in stifling heat in the kitchen. Alex organises and pays for the marquee, the bands, and many other things besides. If he does make money he frankly deserves it. We may never know. ;-) EATS put on a great evening of entertainment under the "Easton's Got Talent" format, with an Oscars theme, which seemed to work well, and our thanks go to Peter Gibbons and his team at Lux Technical for all their professional sound and light support over the whole weekend. The Sunday parking issues we had last year weren't so bad thanks to some signage and CIPS kindly allowed us to open their car park (as well as doing a load of photocopying for us). I hope nobody was severely inconvenienced. We are very lucky to have so many talented and resourceful people and companies in our midst who put in the effort make this a successful community event, and thanks to everyone who helped in any way, from donating a bottle to de-rigging the marquee until 1.00 am on the Monday. Meetings to plan 2025's event will start in January when all are welcome to lend a hand, but until then, let's take a break. Cheers! Tim Nicol |
