National Festival 09

National Festival & Boat Show: Redhill Marina, 2009

Festival Report

“Wot no mud?” was the refrain we kept on hearing from seasoned Festival visitors to our Redhill event and certainly the Festival organisers could hardly believe their luck this year.

Very dry weather during the build, some heavy showers which quickly dried during the get-in on Friday and a lovely dry weekend overall meant that the site stayed pristine, giving a great welcome to our visitors.

Great support from BBC Radio and television in Nottingham and Leicester, ticket competitions on Smooth Radio plus a mention on Radio 2 on Saturday morning combined with all the local press coverage guaranteed us queues at the gates every morning and an estimated footfall of nearly 20,000 over the three days.

Clive Henderson, IWA’s National Chairman, used his opening speech to launch the next campaign against waterway funding cuts, called “SOS – Save our System”.  This will call upon all IWA members to engage with other waterway groups and lobby MP’s, local authority figures and others to reinforce our message about proper waterways funding being vital for a sustainable future. 

IWA members were pleased to see that the IWA marquee had been dramatically re-vamped and proved to be one of the show highlights this year.  With a “stop and browse” shop design, café, children’s play area with miniature diggers and tractors, it proved very popular with visitors.  With a good selection of WOW activities and a WRG mini-bus and bricklaying next door – the whole area was very impressive.  As they also recruited over 100 new members during the weekend – our IWA message clearly came across loud and clear.

The IWA Promotions & Communications Committee also ran a quiz for all the visitors, based on picking out key words from the IWA banners around the site and this definitely helped to reinforce IWA’s image and branding.  The lucky winner of the quiz will receive a free holiday in 2010 from Riversdale Barges in Ireland. 

Advance ticket purchasers also entered a quiz for a boating holiday, courtesy of UK Boat Hire, and Central Marine Services donated a Zodiac Zoom inflatable craft in return for a free raffle (donations welcomed).  The proceeds from the raffle were divided between the IWA and the local Air Ambulance association - the boat being won by a local visitor.

The attractions this year included the Kangaroo Gymnasts, the Raptor Foundation with their lovely hawks and owls again, classic cars, rescuing a “body” from a crashed car by the Nottingham Fire & Rescue service, live music of course, line and morris dancing and much more.

The evening entertainment for those staying on site for the weekend included some excellent live bands, more performances by Mikron Theatre and the excellent “Beatless” tribute band on Monday night – guaranteeing to set the audience rocking in their seats and recounting anecdotes of more than 50 years ago when they actually went to see the real thing at the Cavern in Liverpool!

Trade exhibitors seemed to do particularly well – judging by the laden visitors leaving later in the afternoon.  In fact the numbers who were taking large items back to their cars and then returning to do even more shopping were very noticeable this year and probably accounted for many traders signing up for Beale Park 2010 at the Exhibitor’s evening on the Sunday night.  This meant they could also take advantage of the significant discounts being offered.

WOW was also very busy this year with over 350 children taking part.  One of the local groups, Manor Farm Animal Sanctuary, were doing felt making and the comment was that they had been so busy that they had not had time to visit the rest of the Show.  With bricklaying from WRG, knot tying from the Guild of Knot tyers, back cabin liveries with Waterways World for the first time, The Green Blue environment quiz and many others – the children were as busy as ever.  One of the visitors interviewed by Radio Nottingham actually commented how much there was for children and what a “fantastic event” it was for families.  As this visitor was there with his wife, intending to buy a boat in the near future, it was impressive that he had noticed the children’s activities as well. 

A new feature this year were two photo boards, made by IWA member Ivor Caplan, which children could pose behind to have their photo taken by parents – appearing to wear traditional boater’s clothing.  That was the intention anyway so initially it was quite startling to see adults squeezing themselves behind the boards to have their pictures taken as well – and one family went further by putting their dogs heads through the picture holes for the photoshoot!

The Festival Awards Ceremony was held on the Monday morning and we were delighted to have the Chairman of West Berkshire Council, Cllr Geoff Findlay OBE and his wife present, to receive the Festivals Tiller Pin trophy from the Mayor of Rushcliffe, Cllr Peter McGowan, ready for the Beale Park 2010 Festival.  Their ladies also received a surprise later when the “Tigers” parachute display team landed in the arena and presented them with a well known brand of chocolates.

When the Festivals Committee announced the Redhill Marina site, in the shadow of Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station chimneys, there were considerable misgivings from various sources.  The IWAF team worked very hard throughout the year to try and allay those fears and therefore we were delighted when many of those who had queried that decision came to the show and pronounced it one of the best sites we had used for some time. 

Given the current economic climate we were also thrilled to achieve exhibitor numbers of 230 traders, 245 visiting boats and 305 camping units.  These included huge RV’s, motorhomes, caravans and tents.

It just remains for me to thank all our supporters, particularly Rushcliffe Borough Council and our Event Chairman, Ron Hetherington in particular.  Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station, East Midlands Trains, UK Boat Hire, The New & Used Boat Company, Calor, Beta Marine, Voltmaster, River Canal Rescue, Redhill Marina, the Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association, A S Taylor Transport, Riversdale Barge Company, Central Marine Services and British Waterways.  And, of course, a very big thank you to Waterways World who are our headline sponsors.

Make sure you join us at Beale Park in 2010.  This will be our Tom Rolt Centenary Event – celebrating the birth of one of our founders so we hope to make it an extra special Festival – reflecting his many talents and interests.  Don’t miss it.

Gillian Bolt

3 September 2009