Record number of festival visitors help raise £5,000

There was a record attendance for this year’s Daffodil Festival at Mawgan in Meneage with organisers estimating that 1,700 people had made their way into the church helping to raise over £5,000. 

At one point over the weekend the church was crammed with over 200 people filing through in an hour and more were queuing for the chance to catch a glimpse of a yellow bloom and listen to the choir.

This year, organisers made the decision to open for a third day and it proved to be a wise choice with a queue of people waiting to enter when the doors finally opened at 10.30am. During the first hour on Monday morning over 100 people had come into the church.

There were over 8,000 flowers for festival visitors to enjoy as well as a mini paint exhibition by Mawgan Art Group, a display of pictures and poetry by Garras School and music including a male voice choir, Indian Temple organ and Maen Voes, the new mixed choir from St Keverne. On the Sunday afternoon, the Bishop of St Germans, the Rt Revd Chris Goldsmith preached the service to a full congregation.

Revd Heather Aston, the curate, who was manning the door on Monday morning, said: “We have had a lovely couple of days. It’s such a big event we couldn’t do it alone and it has been a real community effort. We’ve had so many cakes donated!”

The ladies in the tea room worked incredibly hard supplying food and drink and over 145 servings (33 litres) of three homemade soups by Gus Bailey were devoured alongside pasties and rolls which were donated by local businesses.
Another organizer Wendy Bailey said: “The display challenge was greater this year as the cold has stopped the daffodils growing so there are fewer varieties available. However there was still a spectacular show.”

In one display alone there were 700 flowers which had been painstakingly woven into a bamboo frame by Sheila and Graham Perry.

Wendy added: “We are grateful to everyone who has helped out with the festival. IT would not have been possible without the sponsorship from 33 local businesses, the 16 people who spent two days arranging daffodils and the dozens who spent days baking and serving cakes and refreshments.”

The proceeds from the festival will go towards the maintenance and running of the church and towards the fund for roof repairs.