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Neston Village Fair 2017

Once again, by a miracle perhaps, the clouds jogged on just long enough to bless the annual Neston Village Fair with a beautiful, sunny afternoon on Saturday July 1st.

At a guess, it looked like close to 1500 people thronged the field at its peak, whether manning a stall, performing, playing, browsing or just soaking up the sun, fun and entertainment.

Photo by Bernard Rose

On the main stage, the entertainment was provided by the choirs of Neston and Woodfall Primary Schools, Little Actors Theatre Company and InterAct Youth Theatre, solo artist Dani Hughes and Hip & Harmony's Street Dancers, Community Choir and 64 N'Ukes. All were brilliant and received well deserved rounds of applause. MC duties were once again delivered, in fine form, by Alan Johnson.

The Bethania Puppets provided further entertainment on a second stage and NE Singers performed in the Parish Church during the afternoon.

This year's Rose Queen, Elizabeth Hare, and her attendants Lucy Hodge and Daniel Dean, were from Woodfall Primary School and all were beautifully turned out. After arriving with the cavalcade of classic cars, Elizabeth was crowned by Junior Mayor Grace Jones, accompanied by Deputy Junior Mayor Callum McPhail.  Rev Alan Dawson welcomed visitors to the Fair, with Deputy Mayor Carter, after a fanfare from the Neston Air Cadets' Marching Band.

Neston ATC Marching Band. Photo by David Sejrup

All the usual colourful and interesting community stalls were out in force. Lots of charities and local organisations took the opportunity to engage with visitors, to talk about their work and to raise funds.

One such stall was run by the Neston Fairtrade Committee, who 'went bananas' on the day. Samples of Fairtrade goods were up for grabs, including chocolate, nuts and bananas, some donated by Sainsbury's.

Members of Neston's Fairtrade Committee 'went bananas' on the day.

Community at it's best, once again

It was another outing for Neston Community Youth Centre's impressive 'teepee', after its initial appearances at ParkgateFest and the CH64 Big Lunch in June. Here, as then, activities went on all day for families to enjoy. NCYC were also responsible for the face-painting and bouncy castle, much enjoyed by younger visitors to the fair.

Photo by Bernard Rose

Neston Players, alongside Hip & Harmony CIC, were promoting and selling tickets for their upcoming joint venture 'For the Love of It' - it's going to be a wonderful musical play, performed at Neston Civic Hall from July 19-22. It is entirely home-written and produced, with lots of local people involved, so if you haven't already got your tickets, find out more here and buy some!

Neston Players' Carole Goodwin, Jenny Rae, Cheryl and Martin Barker, with Hip & Harmony CIC's Paula Prytherch.

In a slight departure from previous years, Elephant Collective were invited to run the beer tent, which was very well received. They also brought along their fabulous retro Coffee Van.  Other refreshments on offer included burgers, hot dogs and the always wonderful tea tent.  The hog roast was absent this year as it has, in recent years, been run by Northern Lights, whose members are busy gearing up for next weekend's much-anticipated Parkgate Carnival.

Another departure was the absence of a balloon race this year - instead OAKS Charity was well represented by a grand raffle, for possibly the biggest teddy you're likely to find, run by management and staff from Andrew's Estates. They also kindly donated the grand raffle prize of £100 cash.

Management and staff from Andrew's Estates were raising funds for OAKS with their giant teddy bear raffle.

Other raffle prizes were courtesy of Lucy Brooks , Sainsbury's and Balducci's. Organisers thanked Neston Town Council for a grant which covered some of the infrastructure for the day.  Other sponsors included MGC Solicitors, who funded the new marquee, WCC, ATS Euromaster and Lookers.

Huge thanks must go to the organising committee, led by Keith Moores, who all work tirelessly to bring us this event each year.  It's a considerable undertaking, managed by a very small committee and reliant on the goodwill of local people.  If you have any time to spare, or ideas that could help future Village Fairs, please send us an email and we will pass your details on to the committee.

Video

Click here to view David Sejrup's video of the event.

Photos

As ever, any photographs that are not specifically credited to a photographer are the copyright of AboutMyArea. You are welcome to right click and copy to share on your own social media feeds, but we would be grateful if you could also include a link back to this article, so that others may enjoy our report and photos. For your convenience, here is a shortened url to use: https://goo.gl/zTo3m8

Neston's Junior Mayor Grace Jones (r) with Rose Queen Elizabeth Hare, before the cavalcade of classic cars set off from Parkgate & Neston URC. Photo by Louise Sutherland.

Deputy Junior Mayor Callum McPhail, with Junior Mayor Grace Jones. Photo by Louise Sutherland.

Photo by Steve Ebbrell - the Queen is on her way to the Fair!

Crowning the Rose Queen, alongside her attendants. Photo by David Sejrup

No emergency! The Fire Service brought one of their appliances along to the Neston Centre, in front of the entrance to the Fair.

Junior crew member? Photo by David Sejrup

Dee Sea Scouts offered information and hands-on activities throughout the afternoon.

Neston Civic Society got heads together, looking at what?

Plans and photos, by the looks of it!

Photo by Bernard Rose

Balloon popping proved popular! Photo by David Sejrup

Photo by Steve Ebbrell

Photo by Steve Ebbrell

Bethania Puppets, sponsored by Neston & District Churches Together, performed on the Second Stage. Photo by David Sejrup

Hip & Harmony CIC Directors Paula Prytherch and Carrie Spacey were proud of the Street Dancers, Community Choir and 64 N'Ukes' performances during the afternoon.

Elephant Coffee's retro van was a big hit.

All smiles from the Elephant Collective Crew, serving coffee and.....

Beer! Thank you to Elephant's Mark and Adam for keeping the refreshments flowing.

Cheers! Photo by David Sejrup

Maybe we should have had a static camera in this spot all day, to capture everyone using the haybale by the beer tent!

A good turn-out for the performances on the main stage.

Neston Primary School's choir were in fine voice.

So too were Woodfall Primary's choir.

More tea, vicar?  Well done to Arlene, Rose and their merry band of helpers in the tea tent.

The bouncy castle was a huge hit, as always.

Photo by Bernard Rose

Flipping burgers!

Cheshire Chutney Company's Nick Marsh did a roaring trade in pasties, sausage rolls, pork pies and chutneys, raising funds for Neston's Air Cadets.

Spinning the decks...sort of! MC Alan Johnson in full flow.

Local singer/songwriter Dani Hughes performed brilliantly, having stepped in at the last minute to fill a gap on the schedule. Well done Dani!

Photo by Bernard Rose

Like a dinghy out of water...

Photo by Bernard Rose

Photo by Bernard Rose

Deputy Mayor Grace Jones managed to find a classic car to match her trousers...very fetching! Photo by Louise Sutherland.

Photo by David Sejrup

InterACT Youth Theatre brought snippets of some of their recent award-winning work to the stage.

Photo by David Sejrup

Photo by David Sejrup

Hip & Harmony's Street Dancers having fun and performing brilliantly:

Photo by David Sejrup

Photo by David Sejrup

Photo by David Sejrup

Photo by David Sejrup

What a performer! Photo by Bernard Rose

Photo by David Sejrup

Photo by David Sejrup

Robert Perry from the Friends of Lees Lane Ponds gives some visitors to the fair information about the project.

Lots more smiling faces manning a variety of stalls at the fair....

Neston Rotary Club's human fruit machine proved popular once again.

Repti-licious Reptile Parties brought some friends along, sponsored by WCC (Wirral Car Centre). Photo by David Sejrup

More 'crawly' friends in this and the next few pictures. Photo by Steve Ebbrell

Photo by Steve Ebbrell

Photo by Steve Ebbrell

Photo by Steve Ebbrell

Hip & Harmony's 64 N'Ukes provided entertainment. Photo by David Sejrup

Photo by Bernard Rose

Photo by David Sejrup

Hip & Harmony's Community Choir closed the show.  Photo by Andy Irvine

Photo by Bernard Rose

Some additional photos sent in by Lynn Williams, Vice-Chair and Stall-holder Co-Ordinator for the Fair:

If you have any photos you would like us to consider adding to the gallery, please send them in by email.

Related content: Neston Village Fair, 2008 - 2016

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Comments

Susan C

At 09:15 on 2nd July 2017, Susan C commented:

Sorry you missed us AMA, but Neston Town Council was also there with a great display showing 150 years of Neston's various local councils, (July 2nd 1867!)and it proved popular viewing. We also showed some of the grant awards we have given.
We hope to get the chance to show the displays again soon.

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Lambster

At 10:06 on 2nd July 2017, Lambster commented:

What a great day and we were very lucky with the weather for sure. Great photos too.

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Joey's Mum

At 13:02 on 4th July 2017, Joey's Mum commented:

Awesome day awesome pictures! Thank you!!!

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Cecelia

At 01:20 on 6th July 2017, Cecelia commented:

I took some photographs before the Fair started and as I see that the stall that was selected by the Rose Queen as her favourite, namely the Parish Raffle stall, is not included in the photographs here - I will email them through, with a couple of others, and hope that you can include them here. A big thank you to everyone who attended the Fair - I hope you all have your own special memories, I know I have

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Katie Robson

At 08:41 on 6th July 2017, Katie Robson responded:

Thank you for your contributed photos, some of which have now been added above.

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Denno

At 20:21 on 12th July 2017, Denno commented:

I hope that last year's fund raising was also bettered.Perhaps details will follow soon.It was a good day all round in brilliant sunshine too.

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