Page 53 - ALG Issue 4 2024

The National Allotment Society London Region managed a Trade Stand at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival from 1st July to 7th July – the largest flower show in the UK (and Europe).The number of visitors to the Festival was affected by
the unpredictable weather. Despite the weather, the team of 17 NAS volunteers talked allotments and allotment matters to over 637 visitors at our stand during the course of the Festival.
Pre-Show
There is a great amount of preparation, planning and even rehearsal that goes
into making such a large and important event successful – and, in this case due
to circumstances, almost entirely carried out by the London Committee and other volunteers.We should make a special mention of Paula Owen, London Deputy Representative, for her meticulous planning and project management which helped keep the exercise on track. And also, Jean Brodie, London Committee Member, who created, managed and oversaw the design of the stand and conjured up the vegetable display beds.
Show
The stand itself was a 3x3m tent in the RHS Allotment area.We used the new display boards and event counter, together with two new leaflet stands. It took about an hour to assemble all the equipment, and about the same to pack away at the show. A more minimal approach was taken with literature than last year, reducing substantially the number of leaflets and magazines on the stand.This made storage and transport much easier and left the stand far less cluttered.
We also had two large troughs with plants outside the tent.The plants were grown and displayed by Jean Brodie and the troughs were borrowed from North Hainault Allotment Holders Association. They attracted quite a number of people during the day and made the stand look far more attractive.The stand drew some favourable comments, especially from Zoe Claymore.
During the Show
We focused on giving the new A5 Voice of Allotments Community leaflet to interested people. It proved to be a good basis for conversations and was well received.This new ‘Voice’ leaflet also gave a quick entry to the updated NAS website, which is drawing many favourable comments. People were encouraged to use the QR code on the Voice of the Allotments leaflet to join NAS which people were happy with.We carried a small number of other leaflets and Kings Catalogues as examples and only had a bulk supply of 1 edition of the magazine.This was sufficient for our purposes and avoided cluttering the stall.
The show opened to the public at
10am and closed at 6.30pm on Tuesday to Saturday and at 5.30pm on the last Sunday. The weather during the show was not ideal.The last three days in particular were badly impacted by heavy rain and the stand was not as busy on these days as last year, which resulted in Thursday being the busiest day. Other exhibitors commented that
the show was less busy this year as well, again citing the weather, and the nearby
Wimbledon tournament was also reported as being less busy than usual.
Because we had been given (limited
and edited) access to the NAS national membership list we were able to answer the (frequent) question of whether a particular society was already a member of NAS and, therefore, whether the enquirer was already an affiliate member.The answers often surprised people.
All things considered, the London Region Volunteers all agreed that the Festival had been worthwhile because of the number of allotment people we were able to meet face to face, the number of allotment inquisitive people we were able to advise and the useful contacts we made for the future. All this enthusiasm in the face of hot travel, hot days, hours on one’s feet, rain (it is England in July after all!) and sore throats – amazingly dedicated volunteers!
Thank you to all of them and thanks if you dropped by – please do stay in touch. Terry Dickinson, London Regional Representative and Vice Chairman of the National Allotment Society
“...hot travel, hot days, hours on one’s feet, rain and sore throats – dedicated volunteers!”
Allotment and Leisure Gardener | Issue 4 2024 | 53
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