Opened by The Mayor of Greenwich, Cllr. David Grant, the Plumstead Make Merry Festival which was held on Saturday 2nd June on Plumstead Common was a resounding success.  Roughly 6,000 people attended throughout the day from all different cultural backgrounds and ages.  The first Plumstead Make Merry took place on Saturday 21^st June 1975 and was made up from various local people and organisations that volunteered their time.  Today it is still run on a voluntary basis by members of the local community.  This year, the Plumstead Make Merry benefitted from a Transformers Grant, funded by the National Lottery, through the Olympic Lottery Distributor and managed by ELBA. This meant that the festival was bigger and better than ever.

 

From Charlton Athletic’s ever popular ‘Beat the Goalkeeper’, alongside the Children’s Treasure Hunt, activities were wide and varied.  Dressing up in zany costumes, great fun was had by individuals and teams and children taking part in the Alternative Games in events such as Teletubby racing with prizes and certificates handed out.

 

Musical entertainment was varied with several children’s acts and dancing as well as folk music and rock acts.  Adam Tunji (a popular regular at the festival) appeared on both the main stage and the acoustic tea tent.  Eastroad who appeared two years ago also went down a storm with the crowd, whilst The Acapella Punk did a great job interacting with the audience.

 

Other acts included The Outbursts, Plumstead Harmonies, Ronnie Ripple and the Ripchords, Pink Freud, Diddi Dance, The Meds Collective, Savannah Dumetz, Delve Dance Company, Tan ‘Gun Taekwondo Academy, Dance Fever also entertained the crowds at the main stage, as well as members of the Blackheath Folk Club and poets who entertained people in the Tea Tent.

 

 

Sarah Harper, Festival Chair said

“It is such hard work but it is well worth it when I see thousands of people enjoying themselves at this free festival. It is largely thanks to the Transformers Grant Programme and other donations from other small organisations that we were able to put on a festival this year.  No one gets paid and everyone donates his or her time.  We’re already planning for next year, so if anyone is interested in joining up please get in touch”

 

Catering to everyone’s needs there was also a diverse representation of over 60 stalls, ranging from community groups, local individuals and businesses.  This year the trophy for the Best Dressed Stall was awarded to St. Christopher’s Hospice who will also receive a free stall space for 2013.

 

The organisers would love to see your photos and videos from the festival on Saturday, please email them to plumsteadmakemerry@yahoo.co.uk

 

Finally:

Does anyone have photos or memories of the early days of Plumstead Make Merry from when it was a when it was a two-day festival?  If so, please get in contact with Rhiannon at Plumstead Make Merry (see main website or Facebook for contact details) who is documenting the early years.  At present she has tracked down some early photos from Barbara, an Ascension Playgroup leader who put her in touch with Tony who had archive footage of the 1978 Plumstead Make Merry.

 

 

More information about the Plumstead Make Merry and news can be found on our website, www.plumsteadmakemerry.co.uk and on our Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages.

 

 

About the Plumstead Make Merry

The Plumstead Make Merry is the longest running festival in the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

From the very first recorded festival in 1975 on Plumstead Common, the festival has grown in size,

amenities and diversity.  This volunteer led festival has continued annually, with one exception, in 2011, when due to a lack of funding from the London Borough of Greenwich, the festival was replaced with a scaled-down event called the ‘Not the Plumstead Make Merry’.

 

The Plumstead Make Merry Association is a voluntary community initiative that provides an annual festival of music, arts and activities for all of the local community.  The festival provides a celebration of the history of Plumstead and a celebration of our diverse community.  We are committed to celebrating our community.

 

Notes 

 

1. The 2010 Plumstead Make Merry was attended by approx. 7,000 members of the community throughout the day.

 

2. Further information about us can be found on the following internet sites:

Main website: www.plumsteadmakemerry.co.uk

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PlumsteadMakeMerry

My Space: http://www.myspace.com/plumsteadmakemerry

Twitter: www.twitter.com/PlumMakeMerry

 

3. The Transformers grant programme is directing over £1.5 million of funding to communities in five of the Olympic Host Boroughs over two years.

 

4. East London Business Alliance (ELBA) is a social regeneration charity that facilitates corporate investment from City and CanaryWharf companies into community programmes across east London. ELBA manages the Legacy 2020 programme, including a £1.5 million Transformers Community Small Grants Scheme, funded by the National Lottery through the Olympic Lottery Distributor. The Legacy 2020 programme seeks to secure a positive legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games for east London communities through projects covering skills, sports and culture.

ELBA has over 120 corporate members and hundreds of contacts on the ground in Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Newham, Greenwich and WalthamForest. A registered charity, ELBA has over 20 years of experience in facilitating successful partnerships between business and the community. Its work includes running flagship, award-winning employee volunteering schemes that meet real community needs ranging from mentoring and board membership to traditional team challenges as well as delivering successful employment programmes in partnership with its corporate members.  In the last year ELBA helped place over 700 people into work through its employment team, supported over 12,000 business volunteers, and worked with over 500 local organisations in east London.

 

5. The Olympic Lottery Distributor (OLD) is investing National Lottery money to fund the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  It will be providing up to £1.8 billion for the infrastructure of the Olympic Park and Olympic facilities across the UK.  It is also providing £16.6 million to support the Cultural Olympiad and 3.42 million to fund the network of Big Screens across the UK.

 

In addition, the Olympic Lottery Distributor is funding three community projects managed by the East London Business Alliance: In the Parks is a three year project aimed at increasing long term participation in sport; Represent London is a three year employability and volunteering programme for young people; and Transformers is a small grants programme supporting innovative projects which celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in five of the Olympic Host Boroughs.

More information about the Olympic Lottery Distributor can be found at www.olympiclotterydistributor.org.uk.

 

 

 

The committee for the Plumstead Make Merry is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a Transformers grant, funded by The National Lottery, through the Olympic Lottery Distributor, and managed by East London Business Alliance. As such, the Plumstead Make Merry will be taking place again this year.

Alongside the traditional Plumstead Make Merry event featuring live music, children’s entertainments and stalls, we will be running an ‘Alternative Games’ in which members of the public can compete against each other in a variety of alternative sports including a series of challenges similar to the popular television shows Total Wipeout and It’s a Knockout. We are looking for individuals, families, local businesses, clubs, pubs and schools to sign up to these unique alternative games that will include a variety of inflatable courses and games, as well as old school sports day type events such as a three-legged race, egg and spoon race, tug-of-war and wife carrying. 

The event will run from 12-6pm on Saturday 2nd June 2012 on Plumstead Common. People interested in performing, participating or running a stall at this year’s event can contact us by email at plumsteadmakemerry@yahoo.co.uk.

 

Notes for Editors

1. The Transformers grant programme is directing over £1.5 million of funding to communities in five of the Olympic Host Boroughs over two years. The grants are awarded to projects that really make a difference in people’s lives, particularly by those communities most affected by their proximity to the Olympic venues. ELBA is a social regeneration charity that facilitates corporate investment from City and Canary Wharf companies into community programmes across east London. ELBA manages the Legacy 2020 programme which seeks to secure a positive legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games for east London communities through projects covering skills, sports and culture.

2. The 2010 Plumstead Make Merry was attended by approx. 7,000 members of the community throughout the day.

3. Further information about us can be found on the following internet sites:

Main website: www.plumsteadmakemerry.co.uk

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PlumsteadMakeMerry

My Space: www.myspace.com/plumsteadmakemerry

Twitter: www.twitter.com/PlumMakeMerry

As mentioned in previous posts, there was no Plumstead Make Merry this year. This is primarily due to central government cuts in local authority funding, which have meant that Greenwich Council have cut the funding on which the Make Merry has depended on for its infrastructure. So, instead of a festival this year, and to continue our fundraising efforts to ensure that we have a festival in 2012, there was a ‘Not the Plumstead Make Merry’ event on Saturday 11th June 2011 – the day the festival was due to take place.

It took place from 12 noon to 5pm, and was held in and around the Greenwich Rugby Club Pavilion on Plumstead Common (Old Mill Road, London, SE18).

We invited people to come along to the Common from 12 noon, during which time we had children’s entertainers on-hand to keep the spirits high in this celebration of our community, including ‘Run Fun Starz’ who were running Sports Day style events, the ‘West Kent Boys Brigade’ who had an inflatable battle zone, and Riverdale Sports who ran some 5-a-side football matches and fitness and training skills.

From 1pm the Plumstead Integration Project showed films in the Rugby Club and from 3pm was live music and entertainment in the Rugby Club, featuring local acts including ‘Adam Tunji’, ‘Sarcastic Fringehead’, ‘The Acapella Punk’, and ‘John Morum’.

In all, the event was a resounding success and we raised quite a bit of money for the 2012 Make Merry. Thank you to all who attended, performed and/or supported us. Photos from the event have now been uploaded to the ‘photos’ section of the the website.

Our forthcoming benefit bash was featured in the News Shopper…

Plumstead Make Merry to hold fundraising bash at Greenwich Rugby Club Pavilion

7:40am Friday 8th April 2011

By Mark Chandler

A FUNDRAISING event is being held for a festival which was cancelled after Greenwich Council cut its funding.

The Plumstead Make Merry Association hosts a benefit bash on April 16 from 7.30pm at the Greenwich Rugby Club Pavilion, Plumstead Common.

Entry will cost £5 at the door and all proceeds will go towards supporting the festival – the longest-running in Greenwich. There will be karaoke, disco and fun and games.

Organiser Doug Harper said: “We could spend our time and energy complaining about the cuts and campaigning against them – but we won’t. There are many other cuts happening within the borough and nationally.

“Instead, we are dedicated to ensuring that a Make Merry will take place next year.”

For more information email plumsteadmakemerry@yahoo.co.uk, visit the Facebook site or go to plumsteadmakemerry.com [sic]

Click here for the original article (link)

It is with great disappointment and regret that the organising committee for the Plumstead Make Merry have to announce that there will not be a Make Merry on Plumstead Common this year. Due to central government cuts in local authority funding, Greenwich Council have been forced to cut the funding on which the Make Merry has depended on for its infrastructure. The committee is made up of local people who all volunteer their time and efforts for free, we do not make a profit, and proceeds from our tea tent and stalls are spent on staging, marquees, sound equipment and on providing free activities for children.

The Plumstead Make Merry has been held on Plumstead Common every year for the last 32 years. It is the most eagerly awaited local event, and the longest running event in the borough. Last year, over 6,000 people visited the festival. We, the Plumstead Make Merry Committee are devastated that there will not be a festival this year, and we know that we are not alone in this feeling.

The Plumstead Make Merry is an important event in the community calendar. We provide a unique opportunity for local charities, voluntary organisations and small businesses to raise awareness of the services, products, information, advice and guidance that they have to offer. As well as this, the Plumstead Make Merry strives to ensure that everyone in our diverse community has the opportunity to be involved.  Our funding cut will have an impact on everyone that lives in Plumstead, and beyond.

The Plumstead Make Merry is a celebration of our vibrant, talented and diverse community and will be a great loss to thousands of people. Generations of families have attended the event but due to our lack of funding will not be able to do so this year.  The summer of 2011 in Plumstead won’t be the same this year without the Plumstead Make Merry.

However, we will rise above the cuts. We could spend our time and energy complaining about the cuts and campaigning against them – but we won’t, there are many other cuts happening within the borough and nationally, instead, we are dedicated to ensuring that a Make Merry will take place next year. We are appealing to you, the community, to help us.

Throughout the year we will be fundraising and making sure that the Plumstead Make Merry stays in the hearts and minds of local people. Don’t forget the Make Merry, it’s an event put on by local people for local people, it is your celebration of our community.

We are determined to show that the community is bigger than the cuts, and that we can survive. We appeal to everyone to support our fundraising events so that the 2012 Plumstead Make Merry will go ahead, whatever happens with the budget cuts.

We have a great night of entertainment planned for Saturday 16^th April 2011 when the ‘Benefit Bash for the Plumstead Make Merry’ will take place in the Greenwich Rugby Club Pavilion on Plumstead Common, (Old Mill Road, London, SE18).  Entry will cost just £5 at the door and all proceeds will go towards supporting the festival. There will be live music, karaoke, disco and fun and games.  The fun starts at 7:30pm, and we hope to see you all there!

The next event is on Saturday 11^th June 2011 – the day the Plumstead Make Merry was due to take place. It will also take place at the Greenwich Rugby Club Pavilion on Plumstead Common, and for a small donation of £5 you can expect a day and evening of non-stop entertainment.