Press Centre - Southport Food & Country Fair
Press Releases:
Southport Country Fair a sell-out before it starts !
The 5th Southport Country Fair, to be held at the Stanley Sports College over the Easter Bank Holiday (April 7 – 9), really will have the W-O-W Factor.
Because according to show organiser Kelvin Pye it is a sell-out even before it opens.
“I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the response from exhibitors and traders,” he enthused, “I don’t know whether it is because Easter is early this year and so it is right at the start of the season – but I do know the ground will be packed with things to see and do.”
A measure of the show’s success is that it has attracted significant new sponsorship from VW specialists Corkills Motor Group of Marshside as well as retaining existing sponsors Rufford Vets for the Dog Arena. Another, noticeably, new feature will the 200-seater grandstand and VIP area alongside the main arena.
What isn’t new is the price: basic admission of £5.00 for adults and just £1 for children has remained the same since the show started in 2008: “And if there’s a better value family day out then I don’t know about it,” said Kelvin.
Although some of the shows and demonstrations in the various arenas are still only provisional at this stage there will be a bigger-than-ever programme of event across all three days. New-for-2012 attractions include:
In addition these new attractions, a veritable A – Z of others includes: alpacas, bug house, crabs and crustaceans, dedicated dog arena with shows and agility demonstrations, donkey rides, ferrets, gun dog display and have-a-go competition, gymnastics, homing pigeons, honey bees, horse logging, insects, reptiles, sheepdog demonstrations, Siberian huskies and even a ‘wormery’. While other attractions range from air rifle shooting to archery and Classic American Cars to origami workshops.
5th Southport Country Fair - 10.00 - 17.30, Easter Saturday, Sunday & Monday, April 7 - 9, 2012, Stanley Sports College, Fleetwood Road, Southport PR9 9TF. Tickets: £5.00 for adults - or just £4.50 if booked in advance via the Ticket Hotline on 01704 212734 – OAPs £4.50, children (over three years) FREE on Saturday and up to 12.00 on Sunday, or just £1.00 from 12.00 on Sunday and Monday.
- ends –
Memo to News / Picture Editors: a selection of high-quality JPG pictures is available upon request. If required please call or email Anglian Public Relations on the numbers below.
For further information please contact:
Kelvin Pye The Garden Festivals Company 12 Bartons Close Southport Tel: 01704 212734 Email: info@garden-festivals.co.uk Website: www.garden-festivals.com |
Woolly Jumpers – ewe would believe it at the Southport Country Fair
The race is on for Southport to become Lancashire’s answer to Aintree when sheep-racing make its debut at the town’s Country Fair, held at the Stanley Sports College over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend (April 7 – 9).
There will be a total of four-races on Saturday and Sunday only and ‘Honest Joe’ the bookmaker will be on-site to and ensure that no one gets fleeced, loses their shirt . . . or even their jumper.
Runners already entered include: Sheargar, Mint Sauce, Aldaknitty, No Ewe Turn and even Red Ram – the punters’ favourite. With brightly-coloured, numbered jackets and even miniature jockeys it is certainly a fun-for-all-the-family show.
This not-so-Grand-National is not quite so long as Aintree’s four and a half miles and nor are the hurdles as terrifyingly high. Nonetheless organisers hope the event will bring the crowds ‘flocking’ in.
The races are being run by Oxfordshire shepherd Bob Hogg – who has been giving sheepdog demonstrations for 20 years – with his trusty collie Jack coming along to see Fair-Isle play.
“We use thoroughbred Herdwick sheep from the Lake District,” he explained, “They spend all year up on the mountains so they are the hardiest and most agile of sheep. Out in the wild they naturally climb and jump from rock to rock so I’ve found they take to it, well, like ducks to water.
“Obviously the length of the course depends on the size of the arena we have got to work with, but we do use proper gymkhana-size hurdles. The sheep can clear these with ease and, in fact, really seem to enjoy it, I think because they are doing what comes naturally.”
A wool-packed programme of new-for-2012 attractions include: Army 100-metre aerial slide plus paint-balling range, Bwyeller Clywd Axemen, Donkey Show (Sun), Farmers’ Market, Ford Sidevalve Owners’ Club, Lancashire Badger Group, Lancashire Hawks & Owls plus a Falconry Village, Lurcher & Terrier Show & racing (Mon), Snail Racing and Stickmaking
While a veritable A – Z of others features: alpacas, bug house, crabs and crustaceans, dedicated dog arena with shows and agility demonstrations, donkey rides, ferrets, gun dog display and have-a-go competition, gymnastics, homing pigeons, honey bees, horse logging, insects, reptiles, sheepdog demonstrations, Siberian huskies and even a ‘wormery’. While other attractions range from air rifle shooting to archery and Classic American Cars to origami workshops.
5th Southport Country Fair - 10.00 - 17.30, Easter Saturday, Sunday & Monday, April 7 - 9, 2012, Stanley Sports College, Fleetwood Road, Southport PR9 9TF. Tickets: £5.00 for adults - or just £4.50 if booked in advance via the Ticket Hotline on 01704 212734 – OAPs £4.50, children (over three years) FREE on Saturday and up to 12.00 on Sunday, or just £1.00 from 12.00 on Sunday and Monday.
- ends –
Memo to News / Picture Editors: a selection of high-quality JPG pictures – including the sheep-racing - is available upon request. If required please call or email Anglian Public Relations on the numbers below.
For further information please contact:
Kelvin Pye The Garden Festivals Company 12 Bartons Close Southport PR9 8NF Tel: 01704 212734 Email: info@garden-festivals.co.uk Website: www.garden-festivals.com |
Top of the Chops – Bwyeller Clwyd Axemen set to hit the Southport Country Fair
The Bwyeller Clwyd Axemen from North Wales are sure to be one of the ‘big hits’ of this year’s Southport Country Fair, to be held at the Stanley Sports College over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend (April 7 – 9).
The 12-strong team from St Asaph in North Wales will be wowing the crowds with demonstrations of cut-saws, chainsaws and tree felling . . . but it is the pace, power and precision of their axe-work that really catches the eye.
The Bwyeller Clwyd Axemen have been together for around four years but Alun Rees Jones is one of their senior members and has been axing for 12 years.
“I first saw it at the Royal Welsh Show and just thought this is something I have to try,” he said, “Most of the team is from North Wales, but we do have one member from Manchester, and the age range is from 15 – 65 years.
“We use special, steel-forged axes from a company called Tuatahi in New Zealand – which is Maori for ‘Number One’ or ‘The Best’ and exactly how they are made is a closely-guarded secret.”
The most breath-taking part of the demonstration is the log-cutting contest. Each axeman has a two-foot log – usually made of poplar – and 12” – 15” in diameter and the object is to cut through it as quickly as possible. Record time is around 20 – 25 seconds and takes around the same number of cuts. Equally exciting is the tree-felling where, faced with a 12 foot ‘tree’ the axeman has to scale it by inserting three ‘jigger boards’ and then cut off the top”
Show organiser Kelvin Pye commented: “I was knocked out when I first saw the Bwyeller Clwyd Axemen at a show in Wales. I’ve been trying to get them to Southport ever since – and I’ve finally managed it.”
Other new-for-2012 attractions include: Army 100-metre aerial slide plus paint-balling range, Donkey Show (Sun), Farmers’ Market, Lancashire Badger Group, Lancashire Hawks & Owls plus a Falconry Village, Lurcher & Terrier Show & racing (Mon), Sheep Racing (Sat & Sun), Snail Racing and Stickmaking
While a veritable A – Z of others features: alpacas, bantam chickens, bug house, crabs and crustaceans, dedicated dog arena with shows and agility demonstrations, donkey rides, ferrets, gun dog display and have-a-go competition, gymnastics, homing pigeons, honey bees, horse logging, insects, reptiles, sheepdog demonstrations, Siberian huskies and even a ‘wormery’. While other attractions range from air rifle shooting to archery and Classic American Cars to origami workshops.
5th Southport Country Fair - 10.00 - 17.30, Easter Saturday, Sunday & Monday, April 7 - 9, 2012, Stanley Sports College, Fleetwood Road, Southport PR9 9TF. Tickets: £5.00 for adults - or just £4.50 if booked in advance via the Ticket Hotline on 01704 212734 – OAPs £4.50, children (over three years) FREE on Saturday and up to 12.00 on Sunday, or just £1.00 from 12.00 on Sunday and Monday.
- ends –
Memo to News / Picture Editors: a selection of high-quality JPG pictures – including the axemen - is available upon request. If required please call or email Anglian Public Relations on the numbers below.
For further information please contact:
Kelvin Pye The Garden Festivals Company 12 Bartons Close Southport PR9 8NF T Tel: 01704 212734 Email: info@garden-festivals.co.uk Website: www.garden-festivals.com |
Media Only
To gain the latest information, please contact our PR Department
Mr Laurie Pott, Anglian Public Relations
by phoning 01284 768 784
or by emailing lauriepott@waitrose.com