and the winners of the fete flickr competition are...

The results are in and after a hotly contested vote we now have the 3 winners of our village fete flickr competition. We give you:

The best picture of bunting 2007

By Little Teabag.

Best fete game picture 2007

By Richard S.

And the best overall fete picture 2007

By Pirate Internet.

We'll be in direct contact with all 3 winners via flickr mail very soon. Congratulations to all of you on your imminent year's supply of smoothies. Don't drink it all at once.

every loser wins

It's been over ten long years since Wicksy first sat down at a piano and tinkered out 'Every Loser Wins' (they had amazing acoustics in the Queen Vic back then). Well this week we learnt the hard way the true poignancy of Wicksy's words.

Do you remember our attempt to break the world record for the longest bunting in the world at our village fete in Regent's Park? We failed. We didn't quite make it. The current record is still held by Wendy Hughes, helped by 6,000 Buckinghamshire school children.

It's taken us a while to measure up all the different bits of bunting but the final total came to 0.455 miles, 771.72 metres short of the record unfortuanetly.

But as Wicksy sang, every loser does indeed win and we have also won in many ways...

You sent us so much beautifully hand made bunting we felt truely in awe of your creativity and dedication.

We got to hang out with the Girl Guides for a weekend as they helped us to organise our attempt.

It got us all together for a lunch time of bunting making at fruit towers and cheered the office up with the tangles we put up afterwards (I bet the Central Office of Information has never looked like this on a random Wednesday in July).

And we all had a lovely couple of days out in the park.

We're sorry that we failed, you can't win them all though as they say. We are humble in our failure but would like to thank every single one of you who helped or donated bunting to the attempt.

Just watch this space next year, we're determined to get in that book now.

(Oh and if you fancy getting yourself one of those ghetto blasters that were all the rage in Albert Square in 1986 then have a look here).

make someone's year

You probably remember that we started a village fete flickr group a while ago with a prize of a year's supply of smoothies to the best photo in each of the 3 categories. Well the time has come to decide on the 3 winners, the only problem being we can't decide.

So we're hoping you can help us by visiting our voting page and selecting your favourite photos from our shortlist. We'll then announce the winners in our family newsletter on Wednesday 19th September (you can join our family here if you aren't already a member). Voting will close at midnight on Sunday September 16th.

Go vote.

the innocent village fete day one

We were blessed with sunshine and blue skies today for the first day of our big village fete in Regent's Park. Here are just some of the highlights so far...

People enjoying the sunshine. There was a lot of it.

Bunting making with the Girl Guides.

Duck herding.

Rolly pollies on the village green during the Gymnastics workshop.

A Town Crier testing the dog agility course.

Lots of Morris dancing throughout the day.

Lovely flower arranging by our Aliana's sister.

Adem playing 'God Only Knows What I'd Be Without You' on the acoustic stage on a very small guitar in that nice t-shirt with two red circles and two green rectangles again. What are those small guitars actually called?

The William Fairey Band working the hay barn crowd into a frenzy with their brass band versions of acid house classics. They are probably the only brass band in the country to get this kind of reaction on a Saturday afternoon at a fete I imagine.

Plus our smoothies were very popular which was a relief.

Oh and I spotted Louis Theroux wandering around. Appreciating the stranger bits probably.

crafty crafty

The folk at crafty crafty are looking forward to our Big Knit knitting tent and bunting making efforts this weekend as they mention in their blog here.

If you feel a bit crafty on the weekend drop by the knitting tent to have ago at making a little knitted hat or look out for the bunting tent and get busy with the scissors (ably assisted by the Girl Guides).

making bunting

We made bunting yesterday. Using old curtains, socks, glue, ribbon, potatoes, scissors, staples, glitter and some pictures of D Hasselhoff, we created loads of the stuff, in aid of our record attempt.

First, we got some instructions (feel free to use them yourself).

Then we started using all of the weapons in our bunting-making arsenal, including a potato and a Stanley knife. So tough.

Helen soldiered on through the pain.

Will and Abi got stapling.

Sally and Mel posed for the camera.

Hoffelhass reared his head.

And by the end of the afternoon, Fruit Towers was full of bunting.

bonnie bunting

Here's a lovely piece of bunting I've just found that was submitted to our village fete flickr group by the very talented Sally, who obviously has a good eye for bunting design.

If you'd like to join in our attempt to break a world record for the longest bunting in the world have a look here.

just smashing

From our friends at Taylors of Harrogate

Jacob, Chris and Kate show us how it's done

 

From the kind folk at Soup

Sent in by the lovely Rebekah

You may know that we're trying to smash the world record for the longest piece of bunting ever, to be displayed at our Village Fete on the 4th and 5th of August.  We've had some truly insprirational pieces in so far, as you can see.  If you'd like to help out and get creative with your pinking shears, we'd be really grateful.  Click here to find everything you need to know, including the pattern and where to send the finished product.  Just think, you could even show off your handiwork to your Granny at the fete (we reckon she'd be pretty proud).

by hannah

bring on the bunting

Some bunting from our friends at Soup pictured in the spruced up secret alley.

At our big innocent village fete in August we're going to try and break the world record for the longest bunting in the world. It's quite a challenge but we've worked out if we can get a continuous piece of bunting around our fete bit of Regent's Park we'll be in with a good chance.

We might need a bit of your help to get there though so we've put together a quick how to make bunting guide as a printable pdf.

Just cut out some triangles at 16cm x 20cm x 20cm, decorate them nicely if you wish (see example below), then put them all together on a piece of ribbon and send it into us at fruit towers marking your parcel 'Bring on the bunting'.

It's really easy we promise.

How often do you get to say you helped to break a World Record?

an innocent guide to village fetes

Kat has just designed a lovely little booklet that we're giving away on our village fete tour. I'm planning on adding it to the village fete website as a nice little slide show (like this one we did about how to have a slightly better 2007). But for now, and in the spirit of one of the best websites on the internet, here it is as photos...

Look out for them at a innocent village fete near you. They're collector items now, we only have 2 copies in the whole of fruit towers they're so rare.