Epsom and Ewell Fun Day 2015

Epsom and Ewell Rotary and Epsom Rotaract helped with the organisation of the Fun day  The event took place  20th September and attracted about 10000 people.  It is always important to have sponsorship  and the club would like to thank particularly  Barclays Bank The Ashley centre and the local council  for their significant financial help.

The organisers always like to give a broad balance of entertainment as well as providing a platform for local charities and businesses. As you can appreciate it is very difficult to organise suitable entertainment at a minimal cost The council provided help with us organising the diversity stall promoting cultures and acts from around the world. The main attractions took place in our arena . The Birds and Hawk and galloping acrobats were our main attractions.

We need to provide food and drink and rely on reasonably priced commercial enterprises who have suitable expertise to run these stalls. We have a fairground and again we encourage the organiser to  the cost of rides down.  Epsom and Ewell council helped fund  a Diversity tent providing entertainment from Cultures around the world.

The local Group Scout leader and scouts lent us two way radios and helped with car parking.  This was the main area I provided help. The main objectives are to keep traffic free flowing and using one gate for cars. The scouts provided invaluable help by directing cars to park. Overall we rely on approximately to 20 volunteers for car parking alone. There are a further twenty that spent the early part of the day directing stall holders and then collecting money.  As you can appreciate safety for pedestrians is very important and we encouraged all pedestrians to use the gates on Chessington Road  The alleyway by St Ebbas and the gate on Horton Lane. We may have had up to 3000 cars on site during the day as well as larger vehicles for stallholders and attractions. Many volunteers attended all day from dawn to dusk and we would like to thank them for their help.

During the  weeks and days prior to the event  many help with advertising and promotion, in the Ashley Centre and around the borough. We need to prepare the site the day before the event and have a significant number of volunteers to do this on Saturday and Sunday.  There are probably about 30 to 40 volunteers who patrol and assist on the main site. Their duties include answering questions dealing with lost children and items and checking that the site is safe. It can also include providing safety barriers assembling and dismantling marquees.

Rotarian Peter Heard an ex police Dog instructor ran our dog show and he also had approximately five people to help him.   We obtain dog food and prizes as well as running competitions.

The Epsom funday is a substantial Fund raiser for Rotary as we have charities that we are committed to support. We will be looking to start organisation of the fun day again soon and if you would like more information please send an email to the webmaster. Particular thanks to the main organiser Tony Axelroyd and Duncan Cox at their hardwork and dedication

For a video about the funday please follow this link:

Epsom & Ewell Rotary Club Family Fun Day 2015 in 4K from Adam Plowden on Vimeo.

And another video can be found here