Venues & Events

Lancashire Young Farmers muck in to help promote Annual Convention In Blackpool

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Category: Venues & Events

Created on Friday, 06 May 2011 13:09

The five keen farmers  - Joel Speirs  (21 years old from Newton), Alison Moul (20, from Wrea Green), James Melling (26, from Treales), Chris Bartlett (22, from Blackpool) and Lora Fryars (19, from Singleton) – are all greatly looking forward to the event which is expected to attract over 4,000 members of the YFC from across the county.

  They gathered outside the recently restored Winter Gardens complex alongside a gleaming 7.5 tonne tractor, which had come from Hale Hall farm in Treales, especially for the stunt.

  Lora Fryars, Kirkham’s Young Farmers Club Secretary, said: “One thing many people don’t grasp about this event is how many young farmer groups there are in the UK. For example in Lancashire we are one of 19 clubs, and each one has its own independent management committee, membership structure and programme of local activities. The annual convention gives each individual club the opportunity to meet and debate the key issues that will affect all our futures within the rural economy and make decisions that will impact on the future of farming. But we also want to be able to mix and network informally, and the Winter Gardens is perfect because it delivers a great combination of formal and social facilities all under one roof.”

  NFYFC events steering group chairwoman Hollie Harris said:  “We have enjoyed working with the venue, businesses and authorities in Blackpool, which always makes us very welcome and works hard to ensure the event is a success. And we are really looking forward to seeing the results of the regeneration and refurbishment work in the town and at the venue that had just begun during our last visit in 2009.” Mandy Tythe-McCallum, Business Tourism Manager for the town’s marketing agency visitBlackpool said: “Blackpool will, I’m sure, warmly welcome the country’s Young Farmers’ Clubs members back with open arms for this year’s convention and I’m confident many delegates that have been before will notice the impressive changes to the town that have happened since they last used the resort for their annual gathering. I’m sure that many people in the town will enjoy having a group of such hard working and energetic young people around, and that many local businesses will directly benefit from their presence through tourism revenue.”   

Tourism bosses in the resort have also revealed that they have tried contacting the BBC Radio 4’s long running rural soap opera, The Archers, about incorporating details of the 2011 YFC convention being held in Blackpool into the fictional storyline.

  visitBlackpool’s Business Tourism Manager Mandy Tythe-McCallum said of the approach: “We were aware that recently the line between fictional Ambridge and the real world has become somewhat blurred, the most obvious examples being the visit of the Duchess of Cornwall and the broadcast of Gardener’s Question Time from the village.

  “Regular listeners will also know that the character Pip Archer is closely involved with her own local young farmer’s association, so we felt we should contact the producers in good time to let them know details of the 2011 convention in case they wanted details to weave into the plot. We also offered to help arrange a special recording from the Winter Gardens if they were interested in such an idea for either The Archers or the new digital spin-off show Ambridge Extra.

  “As yet we have had no response from the BBC, but visitBlackpool will continue its policy of pursuing every opportunity to promote Blackpool and the Fylde region to the wider UK public whenever we can and through whichever medium is available to us.”

  Since announcing the news of the approach to The Archers earlier this week, trade publication The Farmers’ Guardian has launched a campaign on Twitter to get BBC bosses to take notice of Blackpool’s offer – which many young farmers and YFC’s have enthusiastically been retweeting.

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