Wisbech Rose Fair is great success as sunshine brings out the crowds
Sunshine brought out the crowds for the annual Wisbech Rose Fair on Saturday but a little football match being played 3,500 miles away did have a slight affect on numbers.
Jay Hubbard, chairman of Wisbech Round Table which organises the annual parades, said: "We had a really good turn out, better than we were expecting because of the England World Cup game. "Numbers were perhaps slightly down in the morning, and in the afternoon it was mainly women, children and older people lining the streets.
"But we had a great day. Everything went according to plan and we even organised it so the parade went off bang on time in the afternoon to ensure that anyone who wanted to watch the match could.
"This year we had 29 exhibits in the parade - 22 floats - with the theme 'For the love of music' and congratulations go to Wisbech St Mary school for being the overall winners."
For the first time there was a 'Pride of the Parade' float which carried nine-year-old Ella Wharf, her mum Joanne and Simon Johnson of Wisbech Round Table.
Ella was one of two junior winners in the new competition run for the first time this year to offer recognition to the area's young people. Unfortunately fellow junior winner Gracie-Mai Clark was unable to join her on the float as she was busy being a bridesmaid.
Keen sportsman Lewis Shipley, who was the senior winner, was also busy with a sporting commitment.
All three young people will now be presented with a prize of their choice to the value of £100.
Lewis has opted to donate his prize money to buy equipment for Wisbech St Mary FC juniors and Jay said: "We thought that was a great gesture so we have offered another £100 for the football club too."
Rose Queen Ellie Myles was all smiles as she sat on one of the leading floats in the parade she later presented the trophy to the Wisbech St Mary winning float.
Jay concluded: "All in all it was a fantastic day, there were one or two minor hiccups like a mobility scooter doing about one mile an hour blocking the float parade for a time in the morning, and I understand someone collapsed of heat exhaustion but other than that it went really well."
Elsewhere St Peter's Church was a hive of activity with visitors enjoying the amazing floral displays created for the annual Rose Fair Flower Festival which this year had the theme 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow'.
Wisbech Town Council's Castle Working Group hosted a Victorian afternoon tea in the Castle gardens and showed off the work carried out by volunteers so far to bring it back to life as community facility.
The Castle's famous vaults and tunnels were also open for people to see.
