After much debate and scrutiny of the P&L we decided that BFF2017 should happen!

Learning many things from our first adventure, we planned lots of changes. The first notable one being that if we should if we could, stretch the event across three days. As having families arrive on the Saturday trying to set up camp, thus missing some main acts and entertainment just didn’t seem fair. With this in mind we scheduled warm up entertainment for the Friday, billing it from midday and adding a heavy discount for Friday tickets. We did so in hope also that people would take their time to arrive, therefore staggering the entry of campers to the event and those that could make it a three day weekend would.

We also used the adjacent field solely for use as a campsite, allowing the event field to remain just that and ultimately giving people more space to camp and enjoy themselves.

We also made changes to the line-up for whole weekend and invested heavily on talent, booking lots more child focused tribute acts such as Little Mix, a Justin Beiber Tribute and a One Direction. Our main stage headline entertainers Dick & Dom were joined by Basil Brush and The Sooty Show. Free Radio took charge of the Bar Stage and provided fantastic stools and deck chairs for people to relax and enjoy the sounds of local acoustics acts.

A large circus tent was home to theatre shows such as The Moomins, Science shows, Graffiti workshops plus a second show from Sooty and Co.

The Den saw the return of The Gruffalo storytime along with meet and greets, along with none other than Elmer the Elephant, our colouring wall was twice the size and we also debuted the amazing Aardman Model Making workshops where children made their very own Shaun the Sheep or Gromit under the supervision of an official Aardman animator.

We also introduced our very own mascot to the world and our customers named him via a poll the winners of which won tickets for the event, and Biff the Duck was born.

Everything was set and planned to be our very best BFF, with so much investment and hardwork how could it not be?!……Then came the mobile phone weather apps and incorrect forecasts.

We tried to remain positive on the run up, despite such forecasts. dad and Biff created the infamous Sundance and we prayed.

Alas those prayers were not answered. It rained and when it rains people don’t tend to want to walk around a field. Especially when upon checking aforementioned weather apps, and seeing a little black cloud and lightning bolt on the screen. Yes at precisely the very time Dick and Dom were due to go on stage, our trusty little screens were showing the signs, no outdoor event organisers wants to see.

We headed up a crisis meeting backstage with our Health and Safety manager going through our emergency procedures in the event of lightning.

Thankfully the black clouds loomed and floated on by and Dick and Dom did a splendid job at entertaining our trusted brave crowd who had stuck it out and stayed the duration. They were followed by more fantastic tributes stand out acts such as Jamiroquai and Rhapsody Queen tributes who really got the field dancing albeit in a little rain.

So BFF2017 was over, we again learnt lessons, took a massive financial hit and had bin bags a plenty, some great fantastic moments were had by many, but again we were unsure if we could return for another year.