Instead of the usual Spring Fair this year we’re having a FLOWER FESTIVAL.
All the proceeds from the Festival will go to the charities supported by the parish.
Festival Programme
The Festival opens with a Reception on Thursday, 21 June at 6.00. This will be a wonderful opportunity to see the flowers with the arrangers on hand to explain their interpretations. The Bishop of Edmonton will be our guest of honour. Tickets for the evening cost £10 and they include wine and canapés and we will be entertained by a Palm Court Trio: all the proceeds from the evening will go to the parish charities.
Friday morning is given over to the schools who have been learning about various people who are buried in the ABG. During the morning groups from all the schools involved will come together to present their work. The church will be open to the public from one o’clock and afternoon tea will be served in the Crypt Room.
Saturday will be like the Spring / Summer Fair but without any stalls in the church. There will be lots of children’s activities outside or in the Choir vestry if it rains. In the Parish Rooms we will be serving coffee, lunches and tea and there will be a cake stall, parish souvenirs, the raffle and a tombola.
Sunday’s celebrations begin with a Festal Eucharist. The church will of course be open to visitors after the service, with afternoon tea served from 2.30. The Bishop of London, Right Revd Richard Chartres, is the guest preacher at Evensong. We will also welcome the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, Sir David Brewer, and his wife, Tessa, at that service: when he lived in Hampstead David was Secretary of the PCC. The raffle will be drawn after Evensong.
How you can help
So from this you can see that we need many hands to help in various ways. We hope that this will be a great celebration so please do join in by offering help. Any of the people below will be happy to tell you more about the volunteering opportunities – whether it’s baking, serving, stewarding, offering prizes or bottles, folding raffle tickets – there’s something for everyone.
Flower Festival Organiser – Judy East
ABG tours and Schools organiser – Sheena Ginnings
Children’s activities – Chris Money
Cakes – Angela Read
Tombola – John and Margaret Willmer
Raffle – Chris Weatherhead
Stewards – Jon Siddall
Reception and catering – Elizabeth Beesley
Please contact Elizabeth Beesley [[email protected]] or
Judy East [[email protected]]
if you’d like to offer help or learn more about the Festival.
Or perhaps you’d like to be a Tour Guide? Read on……..
Flower Festival 21–24 June
Would you like to tell people about the Additional Burial Ground?
As I am sure you know by now – we will be holding a Flower Festival this year to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the consecration of the Additional Burial Ground across the road from the church. The Festival is a celebration of the event but also of the lives of the people buried there and the role that the church has played in the community over that time. The festival will run from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th June. Saturday 23rd will also coincide with our annual summer fair.
The Flower Festival will be open to the public from midday on Friday, most of Saturday and Sunday from noon until 5.00 pm. To help visitors to find out more about the ABG, the people buried there and the history of the church we will be organising guided tours. Tours will be available whenever the Flower Festival is open.
Would you like to be a guide? We would love people of all ages to be guides.
We have already generated a lot of research material which guides will be able to draw on, and more is being developed. The aim is that the tours should be informative and FUN, and should tell the stories of some of the people buried in the ABG to make the visits memorable.
There will be a short training programme for guides. I have been a guide at Kew for a number of years and would like to share what I have learned about conducting tours. I propose that we have 3 training sessions to go over material; discuss how to structure a tour; and then a short practice tour. The practice tour is intended to give guides confidence in doing a tour for the public and is also an opportunity to get any useful feedback. If you can do a tour for friends you can do a tour for anyone!
The idea is that each guide will develop his or her own tour – it may be an
overview of the inhabitants of the ABG, or a themed tour such as people with a connection to literature or the theatre, or you may like to dress up and take people around in the guise of a particular character. It is up to you. I expect each tour to last between 40 and 60 minutes – after this people need a cup of tea.
There will be an initial session on Friday 4th May, starting at 10.30. I will confirm the venue before the meeting. I expect it to last between 1 and 2 hours. At this meeting we can agree the dates of the next sessions.
If you would like to know more or if you already want to volunteer to be a guide please contact me on 0208 340 0836 (evenings) or email me at [email protected]
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sheena Ginnings
Flower Festival