The Rauceby Picnic was first held in the grounds of Rauceby Hall in 2006 under the name of The Rauceby Village Fete & Picnic. The event's main purpose is to raise much needed funds for Rauceby's clubs, societies and local charities. The event turned out to be a huge success and attracted 480 paying adults plus children who came for free. In the subsequent year, despite extremely poor weather conditions, attendance grew to 629, an increase in turnout of 31%. The organisers felt that if the weather forecast had been more favourable then that figure could well have doubled.
The organizers pride themselves on their marketing skills. Posters and flyers are distributed within a twenty five mile radius of Rauceby, and the event is advertised in the local press and media through free editorial and radio interviews. It would appear that the marketing is very effective and the event brings interest from far and wide.
In the evening the event saw five bands perform. The line up consisted of Chris Clark's Dedboy, jazz from the Denise Elsom Trio (which turned out to be a quartet!), experimental rock from Geoff Daley and Andy Taylor (both outstanding guitarists), the exceptional vocal talents of Mary Beeson with Sandfly, and, to round off the evening, The Panheads with some classic rock ballads. John Coops' Vortex Brothers did a wonderful job of keeping the musical theme going inbetween acts. The music went down a storm and is definitely something that the organisers want to continue to promote at future events. The WI did a super job with their 'pot luck' stall and managed to raise £205 which they very generously donated to the Rauceby Parish News. The Bowls club raised £72 on the treasure hunt and bowls game which they donated to two local charities. The Sleaford and District Toy Library managed to raise £80 selling their cakes. The Air Ambulance Supporters group managed to raise over £140 for the Air Ambulance. Unfortunately the Air Ambulance was on call for most of the day and was unable to attend, even though they very kindly made a fly past at around 4.30 pm. Rauceby residents Nicky Bellamy and Margaret Outram worked incredibly hard selling the cream teas, which made well over £200. An excellent bar was run by John Todd and Ralph Mundy with the occasional relief worker. There was a wonderful aroma coming from Sally Tjepkema's burger stall, which also proved to be very successful and sold out of burgers at around 6.30pm. The total funds raised in income prior and during the day came to a whopping £5479.27. Our costs were much higher than in 2006 at £4064.39, which left us with a total profit of £1414.88. It was decided by the organisers that £100 be donated to the Air Ambulance. The remaining funds were split equally between St Peter's Church Fabric Fund and the Rauceby Parish News. The Rauceby Village Fete and Picnic seems to be growing from strength to strength and the word seems to be spreading far afield about our little show. In 2008 the organizer Jonathan Hoare made the decision due to work commitments to postpone the event until 2009 and in the meantime form a committee to share the work load and find a sponsor to cover the growing costs of the event. It is hoped the event will develop into a live music event that could well run over a whole weekend.
|