Revellers flock to St Saviour’s to make most of annual event

The July event has been cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions. But as the rules were relaxed, people’s warden Roger Arundale said the parish church was able to reschedule the event for the start of August.

The field behind St Saviour’s Rectory was filled with people on Saturday. There was live music from the Salvation Army Band and GU10, as well as traditional fun on the splat-the-rat and coconut shy stands. There was a raffle and tombola, as well as a plant stall and bric-a-brac.

‘It’s been going really well,’ Mr Arundale said.

‘The barbecue has been going really well, with a huge queue. We have 50% more food than last year and still may not be enough.’

He estimated there were about 2,000 people there, but it was hard to keep track.

‘One person said they think there is twice as many people as last year,’ he said.

He was not surprised the event had proved so popular.

‘The North Show, West Show and Viaer Marchi were all cancelled. The community of Guernsey wants events to go to.’

There were four teams taking part in the tug-of-war, in a bid to win bragging rights and beer.

The plant stall proved very popular and the tombola ran out of bottles about halfway through.

The raffle was also a great success, offering an array of prizes, including staycations.

Mr Arundale said they were very fortunate that they had organised raffle sponsors in February and they had all been happy to put up the prizes, despite the pandemic.

Among the people enjoying the day was six-year-old Flo Chandler and her mother Rachel. ‘It’s been smashing,’ she said. ‘We come down every year.’

Martin Lucas was coordinating the splat-the-rat and coconut shy stands.

He said while the splat stall had been relatively quiet, the shy had been very busy. But fortunately they did have enough coconuts to go around.

Lisa Blondel and three-year-old daughter Issy arrived at the event at 11.30am, so they had plenty of time to enjoy all the things it had to offer.

‘It’s a really fun family day out,’ she said.

Money raised from the event is collected by the church, but then re-distributed to local charity projects.