Big fun at the Puffin Festival
Tommy Noddy and friend at the 2015 Amble Puffin Festival
It was a week of fun and games, mostly sunshine, local music, crafts, talks and community spirit in abundance.
Organisers have hailed the third Amble Puffin Festival a great success.
Starting with a weekend mini beer festival and kite display, the festival proper kicked off on Bank Holiday Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th with craft stalls, music, dancing and fun in the Town Square; glorious sunshine adding to the festival atmosphere.
Children’s sports on the Braid, a football tournament at the Welfare, and a funday at the Radcliffe Club, all made for a fun-packed start to the half term holiday.
Later in the week there were seafood cookery demonstrations by local chefs at the Harbour Village, the guided walks and local history talks were very well attended, as were puffin-themed crafts activities. Watersports tasters were available from Northside Surf, Coquet Shorebase Trust and Amble Coastal Rowing Club.
To add to the eclectic fun, this year the festival was pleased to welcome 007 baddie Jaws lookalike Gary Tiplady, who as well as being an actor, is also a talented artist and who brought some of his wire sculptures for the week. Something of a regular event now, the delightful exhibition of fishermens ganseys were displayed at the Harbour Village.
And of course Puffin Cruises were busy taking boatloads of visitors out around Coquet Island, to see the famous puffins themselves.
Festival organisers were pleased with this year’s event, citing large numbers of visitors and well-attended events.
Julia Aston said “The feedback has been very positive, very encouraging. Businesses recorded increased footfall and visitor spend. Everybody seemed to have a really good time!”
Elaine Brown agreed: “This year’s festival was incredibly well attended, the town was thriving with activities that both residents and visitors enjoyed.” She was also pleased with the Colony music event on Saturday 30th.
“The Colony once again rocked and proved to be very popular, with local bands freely giving their time to perform. People of all ages were singing and dancing and spirits were high,” she said.
The festival ended on Sunday 31st, with a dog show organised by PARRT, and a regatta of local skiffs who raced up the Coquet estuary to Warkworth.
Next year’s event will be 30th May – 5th June 2016. Hope to see you there!
Below is a slideshow of some of the week’s events…
