Despite the weather and the competition of lots of other bank holiday activities, our event Go Wild at Sale Water Park was a huge success!
Go Wild is the first large event to be run on site since the previous ranger group was disbanded around 10 years ago! Up until recently, when TCV took over the visitor centre on site, Sale Water Park was generally neglected and unloved.We didn’t know how many people would be interested in the site or the event or how many would come along to Go Wild!
We started the day at 8am moving tables, chairs, gazebos and decorations to the events field for set up. It had been raining all night and the ground was a bit soggy to say the least! This did not bode well for attendees or vehicles on site!
The rain was still coming down as Charlotte lined our woodland walk with bunting, a group of us put up gazebos, security arrived and were given sign installation duty and we made final arrangements for the arrival of our stallholders.
Pretty quickly the site was taking shape, stallholders arrived and erected more gazebos and everyone was getting out all their promotional materials and bits and bobs for activities that day. We did have to push a couple of vehicles stuck in the mud on the field, but otherwise set up went off without a hitch!
11:30am and it’s time for a briefing, Lucy lets the stallholders know about health and safety procedures, the schedule for the day and where all the amenities are.
12pm and there are already people queuing at the gate and the carpark is filling up! Each family is given one of our lovely flyers (printed using vegetable ink) to let them know about all the fun we have in store for them!
As the first few people start to drift in I breathe a sign of relief, people do want to come to our event and fingers crossed it will be super busy! The scheduled nature walks are already starting to fill up and our first one leaves at 12:30 with Dave, his walk is based on tree and wildflower ID
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1pm comes along and security have let in 350 people and counting! The fire service have also arrived and kids are clambering in and out of the fire engine delighted. There’s a huge queue for pole lathe turning; the Enchanted Forest is beginning to fill up with clay boggarts and our kids nature trail walk leaves in 15 minutes.
The weather is holding off and the field isn’t too muddy, thank goodness, and still more people are making their way into the events field! All the stalls are busy and the nature walks are full to bursting. The field is full of families having fun and everything is going as planned.
I attend Sam Bolton’s walk, he’s from Greater Manchester Ecology Unit and is running a foraging walk. Everyone is making the most of the early autumn bounty of Sale Water Park’s trees and bushes, nibbling on damsons, sloes and elderberries.
I return to the field just before 3pm when the event is due to end and the security guard tells me that nearly 1400 adults and children have come along to the event!
It took us around three months to organise Go Wild (have a read of my other Pre-event blog post for more info!) and it’s great to know that all the work we have put in paid off! Hopefully this means future events on site will be just as successful and attract lots of people from the local area, helping to revitalise Sale Water Park!
I’d like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund, through Red Rose Forest’s Heritage Trees project, and the Trafford Countryside Management Partnership for funding this event. Plus all the organisations who offered their time for free! Without this input we would never have been able to run such a successful day!
