Etchingham

2 Park Farm Close

Last Sunday the final concert was held in yet another very successful Etchingham Music Festival, the following piece is from Ann Smith.

As I have come to expect during the 26 years of its existence Etchingham Music Festival 2013 has once again given us a week of wonderful musical delights ranging through jazz, mediaeval madrigals and music to operatic arias and chamber quintets. Talking to members of the audience after the concerts two appeared to be “top of the pops” - Florian Mitrea and his quintet and Passamezzo with its ensemble of mediaeval instrument players and singers. It has been a week of exceptional musicianship and long may the Festival continue to support these outstanding young musicians. We are very fortunate in a small village to have the opportunity to hear music of such a high standard. Many thanks to the organisers’.

This year, in conjunction with the fete, I put on a photo display in the church with pictures from village events, including Jubilee events from last year, along with a collection of old photos and postcards of Etchingham and the area from the last 100 years and historical items of village interest. This generated a lot of interest and several people said they would have liked a bit more time to look at the old photos and postcards. Most of the display was left in place for the duration of the music festival, for members of the audiences to browse during the intervals, creating a lot of interest, and I was asked to leave the display in place for a few more days for someone who wanted to look at the postcards and had not had a chance. With this in mind I will be putting on a similar display on August 31 when the flower and dog show is held in the Church and Queen’s Garden. The display will differ slightly and will just be the old photos and postcards and various items of historical interest. Also as it is 60 years since the Improvements Committee was founded and events being held in Queen’s Garden, I would like to put together a display of pictures of Improvements Committee events and events in Queen’s Garden over the last 60 years. If you have suitable pictures, I would like to borrow them as soon as possible, so that I can start planning a display. Get your pictures to me as soon as possible with as much detail as you know about the event, date, names etc., and make sure you supply your name, address and contact details. All photos will be carefully looked after and returned after the event. Please mention these details to any friends or neighbours who may not have seen this.

The flower and dog show will be held in the Church and Queen’s Garden on Saturday August 31, now is the time to start thinking about your entries. All the usual fruit and vegetable classes, lots of domestic and handicraft classes as well as photography and children’s classes. A schedule was delivered to every house recently, look through the list, find a class that interests you and start preparing for your entry.

Get information for this column to me as soon as possible, if you have a diary of events planned for the year let me have the dates and I will put in a list of village events for the year so that people can put the dates in their diaries. There are several ways to get your info to me, but email is preferred because there is less chance of errors during copying. I need information by 10pm on Monday to be sure it will be in time for inclusion, I can sometimes add extra items on Tuesday morning, but this cannot be guaranteed. Just a little reminder, I get plenty of information about events that are taking place, but I get very little follow up information, after your event try and remember to send me brief account of how successful your event was, it can be as simple as a thank you to those that attended and how much money was raised etc. You can deliver to 2 Park Farm Close, telephone 01580 819532 or 07941 786244 or email [email protected]