News
Plans for the Buxton Flowerpot Trail 2020
The Buxton Flowerpot Trail is back for 2020 and we’re hoping it will be bigger and better than ever this year – it will certainly be longer. With the return of the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival to early August and the increased visitor numbers this summer with the Crescent reopening, the trail will run for both July and August this year. Previously, it has just run along the summer festivals in July.
The aim of the trail is simply to connect the dots of flowerpot creations on display around the town and help the flowerpot enthusiasts out there to spot them all. Some shops and businesses around town really put in a lot of effort and the results are fantastic – some of our favourites have made the promotional leaflet and map front again this year. It’s also a little bit silly, a little bit of fun and therefore right up our street! After supporting the Buxton Town Team in previous years, we took on the Buxton Flowerpot Trail last year as a separate entity, although it is still closely linked to the Town Team’s Buxton in Bloom project. We marked this by parading a gigante flowerpot person at last year’s Carnival. Maybe you gave it a high five, or it scared your dog!
The flowerpot project also enables us to promote the reuse and repurposing of single-use plastics (and other materials) and the change of mind-set to see something as a resource and not waste. Very little goes into the bin (even the recycling bin) when Funny Wonders is in mind. So we encourage you to have a rummage through your shed or garage and see what you could use to make your creation.
Hopefully (depending on the COVID-19 pandemic), we will be running four public making workshops in May:
- Friday 8 May at the Buxton Spring Fair, 10am-4pm (we’re usually on Scarsdale Place by the Coach House)
- Saturday 16 May at The Green Man Gallery, 2pm-4pm
- Sunday 24 May at the Serpentine Community Garden, 1pm-3pm
- Sunday 31 May at the Rotary‘s Grand Charity Bazaar in the Pavilion Gardens, 11am-4pm
Please come along and make with us or just pop by to pick up some pots to take home. Decorations and making instructions will also be available. Non-residents of Buxton are welcome to come and make a flowerpot person. Last year, the ‘trail’ actually reached to Derby, Sheffield and Priestcliffe near Miller’s Dale.
We are also able to run private workshops for groups. If interested, please get in touch – email hello@funnywonders.org.uk. It’s an activity for people of all ages and abilities – if you can tie a knot, you can make a flowerpot person! (And if you can’t tie a knot, we’ll teach you or help you, so there’s no excuse!)
So, get planning!
For all those wanting to join the trail for 2020, the deadline to enter is Friday 26 June – simply email your flowerpot person’s/sculpture’s location to hello@funnywonders.org.uk.
Last year, we had 28 dots on the trail map. It would be great to beat that this year. If you live a bit far away from the centre of town, we can always help coordinate a more central location for your creation.
Trail maps will be available, once again, from The Green Man Gallery and the Buxton Visitor Centre in the Pump Room throughout July and August for £1. An electronic download will also be available this year.
For those of you who are really proud of your creations, or just plain competitive, you can also enter the ‘Best Flowerpot Person/Sculpture Competition’. This is run by the Buxton Town Team as part of their Buxton in Bloom project. In another change from last year, we’ve had the wording updated to include sculptures, as it’s not always people that are made – last year, there were trains, spiders and mermaids. With the Buxton in Bloom theme this year “gems in the crown of Buxton”, we’re expecting a lot more sculptures – you get more points for aligning with the theme.
We were delighted to win first place in the ‘Best Community Flowerpot’ category last year, with our Village People YMCA display at The Green Man Gallery (the theme was music); and we’re going for gold again this year – planning has already begun.
You can enter the competition by completing one of the Buxton in Bloom entry forms and returning it to the Buxton Town Hall by early July. We will have the entry forms available to take at our workshops and they will also be available at the usual leaflet spots around the town.
We are able to run the Buxton Flowerpot Trail project this year thanks to generous donations from the High Peak Borough Council’s Councillor’s Initiative Fund, Derbyshire County Council and Tarmac with particular thanks to local councillors, Linda Grooby, Jean Todd and Matt Stone, for their help and support.
Anyone wanting to get involved and volunteer with the project, helping to promote it or support the making workshops, please get in touch – email hello@funnywonders.org.uk.
If you make a flowerpot creations, be sure to let us know and use the hashtag #BuxtonFlowerpotTrail so everyone can see it!
