So, after months of planning, promotion and all around hard work by the teams involved last weekend finally saw the Great Notts Show takeover Nottingham city centre for a weekend of celebration – and what a weekend it turned out to be.
First up the weather, the one thing that the organisers had no control over, proved to be delightful, the sun was shining and the skies blue ensuring massive crowds across the weekend and helping but smiles on the faces of all involved.
Of course, while the weather got people out it was the fantastic goings on that kept them there and boy was there plenty to be enjoyed no matter what your age or fancy and enjoy it people did.
One of the focal points was the live music stage where a host of amazing Nottingham acts performed across the weekend with highlights for myself including Josh Kemp and Hallouminati, the crowds seemed to flock to the live music, packing out the garden area of the beer tent. Sadly the stage sat right in front of one of the major walkways through the show site which did lead to a bit of bottlenecking – still if that meant those walking by had to stop and catch a bit of the music all the better for it.
The Food Demo tent seemed to attract decent crowds throughout the weekend with the likes of award winning butcher Johnny Pusztai and Masterchef Live finalist Michelle Burge among those to put on demonstrations throughout the weekend.
One of the delights for me was checking out the Little Wolf Parade area where there was a host of fascinating performance art taking place, the reaction from the passing and watching crowds to some of the performances was almost art in itself – meanwhile we managed to catch a great set by Leetabix and Ashmore (using a loudspeaker instead of a mic) on the LWP stage. Hopefully a few people will have had their preconceptions about art challenged by the wonderful goings on of Lily Wolf and co over the weekend.
For the little members of the NottinghamLIVE crew it was the Mad Science stage the proved most fun (though I’ll admit I thought that was pretty cool too) where they had the chance to make their own slime as well as enjoy other experiments – walking away with a periscope and diffusion glasses. Mad Science does a brilliant job of making science exciting and interesting for kids, they do school classes across the city (as well as shows and birthday parties) I highly recommend you check them out.
Our good friends Bongo Bong were also in attendance and entertaining the little ones with their brilliant music based entertainment – Mikey Monkey was also on hand to say hi and offer out the high fives.
Add to that a host of amazing stalls, including some brilliant food stands, the smells in the air were amazing – and all in all it is safe to say that the Great Notts Show was, well great. Check out a review from our Food Editor here
A massive well done to all involved, especially Andy and the team at All About Tourism, and we’re proud to have been a part of what was truly a fantastic celebration of all things Notts.
We can’t wait for it to be back in 2014.
