Recipe for a Great Summer Afternoon
Celebrating the Royal Wedding

Ingredients

         A great idea

         A lot of determination

         A clear vision

         Many enthusiastic volunteers

         A lot of tables

         A variety of music

         Bags of fun and laughter

         Infrastructure and insurance as required

         Several generous local companies

         Loads of publicity from friendly Media

         Warm sunny weather

         A great positive community spirit

Cooking Instructions

First take your idea and vision, think about it, visualise it, and wonder if everyone will like it?  Don’t be put off, and then mix in the determination to succeed.

Stir in the key ingredients: insurance, local company generosity, media publicity and some of the community spirit.

Now wait.  When the time is right, add the volunteers and the tables, then the sunshine, and more media, followed by the rest of the great positive community spirit, not forgetting the fun and laughter as well as the music.

The result should be the best street party ever!!!

The scene on Town Street during the party

Many people will remember for a very long time the Marple Bridge Association Royal Wedding Street Party, which took place on 29^th April 2011 to celebrate the wedding of our future King Prince William, to Catherine Middleton.

It all started off as just an idea to do something in the street on the wedding day, in December 2010, shortly prior to our annual Winter Wonderland event.  As February 2011 approached, the idea had crystallised into a clear and precise vision of a traditional street party, in order to celebrate this once in a life time event. 

After a check on how many people might attend we got the admin in order: insurance, road closures, and so on...

With the tickets printed by the end of February, and fast disappearing, we started to realise just how popular an event it would be, that we were preparing for. This became all the more apparent when I was driving to Romiley one Tuesday morning.  An ‘0161 832’ number flashed up on my mobile.  Fumbling with a hands free kit, I pulled over and took the call, expecting it to be my office calling.  “Is that Gareth White?” the voice enquired, before going on to explain that they were calling from ITV Granada Reports and they’d like to do a feature on our street party.   This call was followed in swift succession by enquiries from BBC News 24, BBC North West Tonight, Sky News, Manchester Evening News, Key 103, Capital FM, and Pure Radio.

As the end of April drew nearer, week by week, we got more and more things sorted out.  Many local companies and people did us great favours by helping out with the event, by sparing us their time, and offering us their products and services. All for nothing or at cost!

Come the week of the event, every day was spent in further preparation: collecting vehicles and tables, printing price lists, security badges, and so on...

As the big day arrived, Karl Guare, MBA Chairman, and I started out at 7am.  The kid’s rides and the catering units arrived first of all, and then, after we’d been joined by an army of volunteers, began the mammoth task of preparing and positioning tables.  The last few hours before the start it was fantastic seeing nearly 5 months of work come together, after we’d closed the road, and put up the bunting and flags across the street, followed by the tables up the middle of the road.  People then started arriving and putting their own finishing touches to the tables and the street.  The end result was truly amazing.

Opening with our National Anthem at 2pm sharp, the party got off to a great start, with more patriotic music, followed by our Sax Quartet and then other musicians, including the fabulous Annali Hayward from the Post Office, and Sarah Allcard, to name two!

The atmosphere on the street could only be described as electric. We have received so many fantastic comments about the event, and loads of fabulous and sincere feedback from many people. The party is clearly going to be etched on their memory forever.

We look forward to future celebrations. Watch this space!

Gareth White

Marple Bridge Association Committee