Picnic in the Park

An open invitation to participate in the above arrived at Aquarius back in early May. It was sent by the Royal Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, The City of Westminster and The Royal Parks (Phew !).

The event was to embrace the diverse communities from all of the four boroughs and reflect many of the activities associated with each, culminating in a 'grand finale and march past'. Oh yes ! and The Queen, who will be visiting Kingston on the 25th will also be looking in. Your Management Committee decided this was definitely something Aquarius, as a local leisure amenity, should get involved with. Accordingly an application for display space was sent off to the organising office and was accepted.

The day started quite early because our set up time was 8:00am plus Bushy Park was to be closed to traffic by

10:00am. So John Neale and I set off at 7:00am to fight our way through the rush hour traffic. We entered Bushy Park through the Hampton Court gate and made our way down to the show site near the Teddington Gate. Aquarius had been allocated Plot 20 which we quickly found and got underway with the setting up. Our spot was at the end of a long oblong shaped marquee. We had an area approximately 10' x 10' and a trestle table. To this we added chairs, display boards and our new Pico dinghy. The whole lot was topped-off by bunting and Union Jacks. In case it got windy I substituted the Pico sails for their outside profile in red, white and blue bunting. Very effective, colourful and a whole lot safer around members of the public.

According to the programme some 80 to 90 other groups had displays around the show but interestingly Aquarius was the only sailing club represented. By 10:00am John and I had finished setting up and we stopped for coffee. Eric Bridgewater was the first of our crowd to appear and as the 'great British public' started pouring in he was quickly pressed into service answering questions and handing out publicity material.

We were soon joined by Roger Wheeler, Joan Garrett, Richard Cannon, Joan & George Bray and Keith & Madeline Hatton. As we were only allowed three people on the stand at any one time this provided plenty of opportunity to have a look around. There were stands for everybody including Boats (big and models), Army vehicles, Fire Engines, Vintage Bikes (a Penny Farthing was even being ridden), Bee Keeping, Theatre, Gardening, Toy Libraries, Rambling, Hospitals and Talking Newspapers. The live displays included Vietnamese Dancing, Shires Horses, Civil War Battle Re-enactment, Bands, Orchestra's, Choir's, Jazz, Dance. You name it !

A little later Lyn and a couple of girl friends arrived 'mit picnic' and we spent a very pleasant hour or so, munching our way through chicken salad, strawberries & cream, cheese, fruit and champagne. Pretty average, but someone had to eat it all !

Mid afternoon The Queen arrived and everybody went 'camera-mad'. Keith and I found a particularly good spot, so good in fact that it attracted the attention of the security people around the royal couple. But what the hell, hopefully we got some good pictures. The day was scheduled to end at 4:00pm but it was gone 5:00 before the crowds thinned out. Everybody helped to pack up the stand and the Pico, which was great and saved a lot of time.

So what did we get out of it, apart from a sun tan? Well, virtually all the publicity material was handed out and a good number of people filled in the visitors book. We will follow these up and maybe hold another 'mini' Open Day. We were visited by a number of Councillors 'glad-handing' their way around the show, but we made some useful contacts. We got ourselves well and truly on the map as the only Sailing Club at the show, Tamesis SC having dropped out, so I was informed by the organisers. All together not a bad day!

Many thanks to everybody who helped on the stand, it was much appreciated. My special thanks go to John Neale who worked like a Trojan to help me set up, was on the stand most of the day and came back to Aquarius with me to drop of the dinghy. Thanks mate, I owe you one !

Mike (The AQSC Publicity Officer) Baker

Also thanks to Mike for all the work he put into putting on a first class display. Display boards that are used for the Signet Association display at the SailBoat. Exhibition were used.