5th fete date

Hi to anyone who reads this...


Just setting the date for this year's fete for the 12th July. Put it in your diary. More details to follow.

My bread 'loafers' were a highlight of the food fancy dress...

Colin and Rosa show off their pasta necklace & pineapple hat

The Fry Up Inspector readies himself for the cake judging

Excellent gramophone music once again, spinning the oldies

Annie's cup cakes were the eventual winners - they disappeared fast after the judging.

Mini Mill Lane floor painting

Sponge the Royal Dad got a bit out of hand. Mums next year..

Thanks to everyone who joined in, helped out, and turned up!

Pictures from 2011

The sun shone, the food and cakes were great, people (and Travis the dog) won prizes, the children ran up and down and up and down and up and down, and we had fun. Thanks to everyone particularly all the talented singers and dancers and hula-hoopers.

It's coming!

Feb meeting

February meeting at the Marlborough

Tuesday 22^nd

Sorry about inviting everyone at short notice – blame it on a busy schedule. In the event just three of us turned up but we reckoned that was enough to form a corum.

The main thing decided was a date for our street party: Saturday 11^th June. Should be nice and hot with any luck.

Because of the royal wedding the city council has made the whole process of getting streets closed off for parties easier and more simple. I will put in the application and pay the modest £30 fee.

We got so excited about setting a date that we reckoned the rest will be easy to sort out. Sarah will organise a big group painting, and Amelia has said she will put together a DVD of local history clips from the archives (we can show this in a garage/cinema). Rosie has suggested that we distribute a triangular template so that everyone can make bunting shapes. These will be brought together and sewn onto cord so that we have plenty of lovely bunting for that party atmosphere.

There will be a timetable of events so that people know what is going on: Lunch, events, races, competitions, music, tea and an end time. It ought to be pleasingly anarchic.

We decided against selling alcohol because of licensing issues, but everyone is welcome of course to supply, share and drink their own. It’s likely that some people will hold their own garden parties in the evening.

No need for any more meetings until nearer the date. We’ll do another leaflet several weeks before, inviting people to hold events/stalls in their gardens and making sure everyone knows about it.

Word has spread and people are apparently talking about it already. Thanks to Helen for setting up a Facebook group.

Results of first discussion

Wed 10th Nov 2010 - Mark, Nina, Kieron, Annie, Helen & Sarah

We met in the pub for about an hour and a half and had a first discussion about what sort of things we would like to see at a street party / fete. We agreed that it would be better to have lots of free & participatory things going on rather than just a lot of stalls (although a few garage sales & boot sales would be fine). The main events would be structured around an “everyone bring a dish” lunch to bring residents together, and later on a big round of tea (& scoffing of the cake competition entries). We could put out garden furniture to make big tables with lots of chairs etc. Other events would take place between these two group meals.

Suggestions for possible events included:

• Bunting. Lots of bunting.
• ***Mill Lane’s Got Talent*** (for adults & children)
• Garden games.
• Egg & spoon race.
• Cake baking competition.
• World map with flags to show “where are you from?”
• Acoustic music. (should have a prearranged schedule with times etc)
• Pet fancy dress.
• Archive photo display of the lane, Marlborough Rd & Beaconsfield Rd.
• Craft workshop type things.
• Dressing up stuff for children & face painting.
• Huge massive sheet of paper with paint for a giant collaborative painting.
• Throwing wet sponges at someone (volunteers please?)
• Funny costumes for adults & fancy dress generally.
• Ice Cream Van!
• A raffle with donated prizes to cover any costs.

We agreed that for the first year at least we should try to do this on a shoestring budget so that there’s no need to raise money in advance. Lots of people have old paint, materials etc that we can share.

It was generally agreed that the best place to locate all of this was towards the upper end of the Lane where it flattens out (although we are not saying nothing should happen at the lower end). The idea of people opening up their gardens to put on events was thought to be a good one.

The most important bit – we thought that June or even May (perhaps at the end of half term?) would be a good time. Saturday afternoon would be best and then afterwards individuals could have evening parties if they wished.

THINGS TO DO NEXT: 

Keep on thinking up ideas and deciding what we personally would like to get involved with putting on. Talk to our neighbours and get them interested.

NEXT MEETING IN JANUARY  date tbc