Daffodil Weekend 2019

Hi all,

Daffodil weekend is on

23/24 March 2019

Apologies this is an e mail, but it aims to give you all the information you need for the weekend. You may want to scan down to get to the bits that may be relevant to you. A copy of this will also be on display outside the shop for future reference

As you are probably aware this event raises a lot of money for good causes both inside and outside of the Parish and is also a great way to meet new people, make friends and “give back” in general. It is one of the things that brings us together and makes Thriplow so special

The event is a huge effort for the village - from people running the car parks, serving teas, tidying up through to the land owners letting us use their fields. As a result of all the effort on the weekend itself our small, beautiful village runs more retail outlets than Bluewater! So a huge thanks in advance.

Media Contact

Daffodil Weekend attracts national media attention. If you are contacted by the media please forward them on to Paul Earnshaw or Kerstin Rivett admin@PROTECTED. Also please assure them we will have daffodils (they always want to run a story that we have no daffodils. In Thriplow now we have over half a million with 115 varieties from super earlies to ultra lates so are guaranteed they will be in flower!)

Volunteers: Tearooms and baking

The signing-up sheet for the Tearooms will be in the Village Shop from Friday 1^st February. Do sign-up as soon as you can to ensure you get the time you want.

Daffodil Weekend is the perfect excuse to get baking! And if you love to bake cakes, then please consider donating some for our visitors to enjoy over the Weekend; all types of cakes welcome including coffee, fruitcake, Victoria sponge and gluten free ones too.

Cakes can be delivered to the Village Hall (meeting room) on Friday 22^nd March between 3 and 6pm, as well as the mornings - Saturday/Sunday (23^rd/24^th) from 8am. Please label your plates and trays so they can be returned. Paper plates will be available if you would rather not leave your own plate behind. Please remember to label your cake too - a good way to do this is to create a ‘flag’ out of a cocktail stick and sticky label.

Our tea room venues are:

· Cricket Pavilion

· Village Hall

· School (contact the school directly for the rota office@PROTECTED)

We do hope you can spare a couple of hours or so to help in the tearooms over the Weekend.

· The Tearoom Team – Gill McDonnell, Mandy Thornton and Diana Ramsey

· Phone: 01763 208059

· Email: daffodiltearooms@PROTECTED

Volunteers: Team Sandwich

Making our own sandwiches has proved to be a big success. A huge amount of fun was had in making them. If you fancy being part of ‘team sandwich’ then give us a shout. An hour and a half at most is all you need to commit to on either the Friday or Saturday evening usually from about 5pm. Please contact Katie Hilton by email – wildwoodbss@PROTECTED if you would like to help make sandwiches.

Volunteers: Car parking, bus parking, transport

For many visitors the first impression that they get of Thriplow is when they arrive at the car parks and coach parks. We are very grateful to all the people who take time out of their day and so enthusiastically help with parking and welcoming visitors to our village. If you are able to help, please contact Fergus Ramsay fergus510@PROTECTED as soon as possible. Volunteers are only needed for relatively short periods of time and it is a fun way to contribute to the weekend. The village is regularly praised on the warm welcome visitors receive.

Volunteers: Tidying the village after the event

An important job that takes place at the end of the day is the village tidy up. This typically involves checking that the car parks are clear (of both people and rubbish) and clearing up any straw that has been used. If you are able to help with this please also email admin@PROTECTED .The more helpers we have the quicker everyone can get to the pub!

We are conscious that in the past the village has taken a while to recover after Daffodil Weekend so we are looking into protecting delicate verges and entrances with a combination of matting and wood chippings ahead of the event

Volunteers: Children’s Thriplow

Volunteers are also needed to run some of the Children’s games for a couple of hours. No money taking or prize giving involved, as we use tokens, so relatively easy and good fun. Please contact Morag Clifford morag.clifford@PROTECTED

Stalls ‘at home’ – Charity and Domestic Commercial stalls on driveways

 

The Daffodil Weekend event offers residents the opportunity to have a stall ‘at home’ to raise money for particular charitable causes. There is no charge for stalls that are raising funds purely for charity.The Committee would be interested to know how much money you make so we can add it to the grand total raised by Daffodil Weekend. Please get in touch by emailing admin@PROTECTED.

 

However, where the resident is trying to make money from goods of any kind, we ask for a goodwill contribution of £25. Cheques, made payable to Thriplow Daffodil Weekend, can be left in the Daffodil Weekend postbox in the Village Shop, preferably before the 22^nd March 2019.

 

Stalls ‘at home’ applications can be submitted online www.thriplowdaffodils.org.uk/stalls-at-home-application-form/ and this form covers both domestic commercial and charity stalls. Application forms are also available in the Village Shop for those who do not have access to the internet.

 

Please note: if you have a stall ‘at home’, an offer to help with main Daffodil Weekend duties (e.g. car parking or tearooms) would be appreciated!

Open gardens

Why not open your garden? This tradition dates back to the very first Daffodil Weekend and is very popular with the visitors. Your garden does not need to be a “show garden” our visitors are interested in seeing how other gardens are laid out etc. If you would like to open your garden please e mail admin@PROTECTED ideally by 31^st January, so we can include you in the programme.

Daffodil planting

We have continued the planting programme with plantings of specialist and heritage daffodils around the village – look out for the signs that will be appearing. As a result we now have over 115 different varieties of daffodils within the village. We are absolutely guaranteed that some will be in flower whatever the weather – please emphasise this if contacted by the media!

Programmes for entry to the village

These will be distributed to the village approximately a week before the event. Please note these programmes are to allow residents and helpers free access to the village during the road closures. If you are a helper from outside the village then further programmes will be available in the shop and school. If you have friends or relatives visiting especially for the weekend, we would be grateful if they made a contribution to the charity weekend by buying their programme as a normal visitor or by helping and thus qualifying for a free entry programme

Safety meeting

The health and safety and radio briefing for Team Leaders etc will take place on Wednesday 20^th March at 8pm in the Village Hall

External Charity

This is being finalised

New for 2019

As well as measures we are taking to ensure the smooth running of the event (new traffic management signs and protection of village infrastructure) we are continuing our strategy of making Daffodil Weekend more family friendly by trying to promote the spirit of a warm and friendly historic English village. We are moving “Childrens Thriplow” into the same field as “Country Thriplow” to exploit the synergies of these two attractions and to make more room for an enlarged “Taste of Thriplow”. We are also considering increasing the attractions on Peggs Close to create “Historic Thriplow”

Contacting Daffodil Weekend

We are keen to hear your views and suggestions about Daffodil Weekend. You can do this in a number of ways – you can e mail us on admin@PROTECTED , you can contact us through the website http://thriplowdaffodils.org.uk or by using the Daffodil Weekend postbox in the Village Shop. You can also speak directly to a member of the committee:

· Admin Gill McDonnell

· Attractions Mary Lindgren

· Tearooms Mandy Thornton / Diana Ramsey / Gill McDonnell

· Chairman Paul Earnshaw

· Children’s Thriplow Morag Clifford / Kelly Austin

· Event Radios Mark Brogan

· Country Thriplow Anna Jermain

· Finance Lisa Maltpress

· Infrastructure Clare Ansell / Greg Hilton

· Music and stalls Laura Hunt / Sarah Deacon

· Publicity and website Kerstin Rivett

· Safety Brian Roberts

· Signs Andrew Parsons / Jonny Griffin

· Taste of Thriplow Alastair Gray

· Transport Fergus Ramsay / Sabrina Melvin

· Village Image Neil Rowland Hall

 

Thanks in advance for your continuing support!

 

Best wishes

 

Daffodil Committee