The 22nd Cornwall VW Owners Club Jamboree took place at Stithians Showground, Nr Falmouth,Cornwall
on 22nd,23rd & 24th of August.
The weather over the 3 days was in the main quite kind to us with some sunshine on all opf the three days but on the evening of the 23rd and overnight then heavens opened and the wind picked up to quite a stiff breeze, high enough to wreck a few tents awnings and gazebos’ anyway.
Spirits were not deflated too kuch though and a great time seemed to be had by one and all, this has been borne out by some of the lovely comments made to us as we cleared away at the show site on Monday afternoon.
As even visitors came from all over England and even Tim from Druids Brew managed to make it to the show without help from the recovery services this year, well done Tim.
The Children were entertained fully by various means and this year Jakey and Pauline organised a colouring in contest with, of course, a hero and villain theme to match that of the main party night, Alan provided his magic act known as Mr Wacky and as ever this went down a storm as too did Richard Reddy who also provided an act full of magic wonder and balloons.
The Saturday night party featured fancy dress as ever and this year it was a heroes and villains theme. so,plenty of Spider men, Captain Americas and even a Grim Reaper or two and a Santa Claus!! oh well, I guess to a 6 year old Santa is a Hero.
We had a terrific turn out of traders again for 2008, around 50 with almost everything available from clothing and jewelery to toys and those all important VW bits and pieces, the rubber seals, camping accessories, number plates and shiny chromed after market toys spring to mind here.
Food was also available in abundance and with great variety from the traditional Cornish Pasties from Rippons to the multi flavoured jacket spuds cooked within a steam engine plus of course Ice creams provided by Kellys from Bodmin.
The Show & Shine on Sunday saw some 175 entrants and as ever the standard was very high and the Show & Shine teams worked their socks off to get them all in place within the correct class before the judging commenced. In the sign in tent were Michaela and Kirsty with sundry helpers and on the field Richard & Nigel Searles who had marked the pitch out the day before, well done again to all of them.We were very luckily really as the heavy rain on Saturday managed not to turn the site into a mud bath as the arena is actually a football pitch so leaving large deep ruts is not an option. Well done to the entrants for driving with great care to help us to cause the least damage possible.
The evening entertainment on offer was as varied as ever although we did have a little problem with the Saturday Night bands who wanted to awaken the dead in the Parish Churchyard! Unfortunately we have enough live ones that complain about the noise and need to keep levels to an acceptable level so as not to upset them. Hope we managed.
To run this show requires a lot of help and for some of us it is from the Wednesday that we are walking miles around the 40 acre site so thats 5 1/2 days in all and to put it mildly the word that comes to mind is knackered especially on the final day, the clear up, when all the rubbish needs to be in one of the skips and not the pile it was dropped in in the middle of the field. We received plenty of help through the main daytime periods but on Monday there were I believe 6 of us still at it until 4.00pm and then after the others had left I did a perimeter patrol and found another 16 sacks of rubbish, a broken gazebo, broken chairs and rope and stakes that had not been sorted so I was still there at 5.00pm.
A great thank you to all of you who donned the red shirts and actually helped. We are all unpaid volunteers at the end of the day and if everyone had walked across the field in line picking up litter it would have taken a lot less time than it did. Oh well, next year maybe?
A big thanks too to the judges for the Show & Shine who carry out what is basically not an easy task.
Thanks to skinners for providing an on site Bar.
Thanks to Tony Delight for coming along with his bucking bronco
Thanks to the Disco and the four bands [marquee]
Thanks to Tim and Druids Brew for their performances from their van
Thanks to Alan the Belfast Busker and his band, left and right hand, titanium rod, 4 self tapping screws and to the cast of rainbow for backing him on his loud speaker cabinet. As even he managed to get a great sing song going in the afternoon just before the prize giving.
Did we enjoy it……………ask me next week I’m too tired right now
With the comments received to date we will say yes I’m sure, as long as the guests go away happy we are happy. The weather was kind, the visitors came and our investment into the show should have come back to us so we will be able to oprganise one of the same magnitude next year………see you in 2009
SLIDESHOW OF 2008 JAMBOREE
Norman — Vice Chairman
