Brixham Chamber was proud to be a headline sponsor once again for BrixFest, the community-led celebration of Brixham past and present.
Keith Williams of Brixham Chamber said “The BrixFest team of volunteers put in countless hours free of charge over the year and do a tremendous job of planning, organising and delivering a fantastic Festival experience at the end of May for locals and visitors alike.
“We were delighted to be able to support them once more this year and the Chamber would like say a huge thank you on behalf of local businesses to everyone who contributed to make BrixFest 2014 so special.”
By Harry Bower
On behalf of the BrixFest Committee
BrixFest 2014 was bigger and better than last year, with thousands of people heading for Brixham to enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend. Luckily the weather was kind to us and people showed their support by visiting all of our events in their droves.
Saturday hosted our ‘official opening’ by Brixham M.P, Dr Sarah Wollaston and Brixham Town Band along with cooking demonstrations, acoustic music sets, local food stalls and heritage craft demonstrations topped off with our popular BAYS Brewery Tent. The food stalls stayed open and live music (sponsored by WBW Solicitors) continued up to our Grand Firework Display at 9:50pm, which saw literally thousands of people descend on the inner harbour basin to grab the best view point, while thousands others viewed the display from their own homes.
Sunday’s day was filled with 1940s themed events, including our Street Party. Chairs and tables stretched up and down Fore Street and 1940s themed live music was played from the centre. The day was ended with our annual Arts & Crafts Market, and a special 1940s Plane FlyBy, which (although late!), was a great way to round of a day where the sun shone, and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Monday was a day of two halves, which encouraged visitors and locals alike to walk the length of Brixham’s retail sector, taking part in activities along the way. Our annual children’s day on Breakwater beach grew tenfold in size this year, with much thanks to the funding received by The Arts Council Lottery Fund and the sponsorship by Splashdown Quaywest, Goodrington. 1940s day at the Old Fish Quay was another overwhelming success, with themed vehicles and enthusiasts dressed up, demonstrating and exhibiting real authentic ornaments and weapons. Our 1940s tea and cake tent also did excellently, with live music from Sandy Sparkle encouraging people to get up and dance the afternoon away!
The other events, our annual Crabbing Comp & Vintage Car Rally too went down a storm.
In terms of feedback and response we’ve received from locals, businesses and visitors: the general feeling is that BrixFest has arrived this year. We received just over 2000 tweets over the weekend, and our website actually went down on Monday morning thanks to an overload of hits. We soon had it back up and running again, but in the mean time our Facebook page gained another 200 or so ‘likes’, only adding to our scope to reach an audience ever expanding out of Torbay. We were shocked this year more than ever at the number of visitors from outside of Devon who come to the area BECAUSE of BrixFest, not JUST because Brixham is so beautiful (although that’s a large part of it).
Our feedback has been that people enjoyed the festival so much, they’ve re-booked to return next year. An excellent achievement. Lots of local businesses and street traders have reported an increase on earnings from last year, and some even reporting record days of trading for the entire year. Certain food outlets actually ran out of food!
All of this goes together to add up to the most successful BrixFest yet, and we’re in our third year. We’re only just getting started…
For more information on BrixFest 2015, how to get involved by joining The Committee, or for just general information, pictures and enquiries – please visit any of the links below.
www.brixfest.org <http://www.brixfest.org>
www.facebook.com/BrixFest <http://www.facebook.com/BrixFest>
Twitter: @BrixFest
www.twitter.com/BrixFest <http://www.twitter.com/BrixFest