Celebrate Buckingham Day was arranged to celebrate the range of voluntary organisations who are serving the town and to enable local groups to raise funds and recruit volunteers and to bring residents together. The day also included the Buckingham Society’s annual Civic Day event and award-giving.
This year was the second time the event had been held and after overwhelmingly positive feedback received by the Town Council, it will continue to be a staple in our yearly events calendar.
The event took place under blue skies in the paddock in Bourton Park on Thursday 2nd June with up to 1000 people having attended the event. Entertainment was provided by the Winslow Concert Band, Brackley Morris Men and the ever-enthusiastic Buckingham Ukulele group. The Town Council also arranged for bouncy castles, a face painter, a doodle artist and food vans to ensure there were plenty of reasons for residents to stay and enjoy the day. You could even lounge and take pictures in our giant deck chair!
As this event was the first to kick off our long weekend of Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the Town Crier gave a formal proclamation followed by a speech from the mayor, Cllr Margaret Gateley. Shortly after came the judging of the Jubilee Dress Through the Ages competition which saw seven winners from three categories who all received some great prizes sponsored by local traders – Wood Bee Nice, Buckingham University Bookshop, Planet Refill, Cornwall Place Kitchen, Chafor Wine and The Little Buckingham Clinic.
Bard of Buckingham, Sami Tite performed pieces from their repertoire, including the poem they performed at the Bardic Trial back in October, and British history themed pieces.
The Angling Association held a maggot racing competition while the Buckingham Society ran a bowling for the pig stall (actually, bowling for butcher’s or supermarket vouchers) and the Buckingham Pantomime Group offered pantomime characters in stocks for children to throw wet sponges at. There were opportunities to try your hand at a game of traditional bowls, hunt for mini-beasts and see what you could win in a lucky dip. There were 27 stalls in all, each of which were busy all day.
The Buckingham Society presented the Trader of the Year award for 2022 to Smith and Clay the butchers, with Leeder’s Hardware being the runner-up.
Lead councillor for this event, Cllr Robina Ahmed said: ‘Celebrate Buckingham Day was an excellent start to the Jubilee weekend, a great turn out and festival atmosphere accompanied by perfect weather, made it a fabulous day for the whole community. It was a real pleasure to be the lead councillor for the day and run the Dress Through the Ages competition. Thank you to all involved, from our Lady Mayor and Town Council to all the traders and volunteers, the musicians, dancers and artists, together we made it a day to remember.’
For enquiries, please contact Paul Hodson at Buckingham Town Council on 01280 816426, or email communications@buckingham-tc.gov.uk.