put up posters and win stuff

We're hoping that you might be able to help spread the word about our village fete this summer in your local neighbourhood or place of work. All you need to do is download this post, print it out and stick it up somewhere where lots of people might see it.

Then you can take a photo of it and enter it into our flickr competition if you like. There'll be prizes for best placed poster, the strangest placed poster and the place where the most people are likely to see it.

It's all about keeping it local these days.

please say hello to the innocent band

Here's a very sneak preview of the innocent band who played for us here at Fruit Towers last Thursday lunch time. They'll be playing again at our village fete on both the Saturday and Sunday so keep your eye out for them on the programme.

Every single member works here Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm, so we're quite proud that they've managed to pull together a fully fledged 9 piece band in such a short space of time. In the blurry distance, you can probably just about make out Caroline, Cass, Ceri and Vic on vocals, Duncan on drums, Jamie M and Tim S on trombone and trumpet respectively, Ruvan on guitar, Malinna on bass and Ben T working his magic on the piano. Oh and there's a tambourine that gets passed around as well. We can't forget the tambourine.

And here's a chicken with his eye on some apples.

Unfortunately, he's already been booked for another engagement this summer.

re-entrants ukulele duo do the ace of spades

We love a bit of the ukulele at innocent. That's why we've got the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain coming along to play at our fete on the Sunday.

If you also like a bit of the ukulele have a look at this rendition of Motorhead's The Ace of Spades by The Re-entrants. It's truly unique.

Just to be clear The Re-entrants won't be playing at the fete. But we will have cover versions done on ukulele's that's for sure.

local marketing, for local people

Ceri found a lovely example of some local marketing at our nearest pub the other day. Then on my lunchtime stroll today I came across this sign for our friends at Brackenbury Primary School's Summer Fair this Saturday (literally a stone, or stray tennis balls, throw away from Fruit Towers) .

Their Summer Fair is being supported by the local estate agent by the look of it so they've come up with the very nifty idea of sticking up estate agent signs with the children's own art work advertising the event.

If you'd like to advertise your own school/ WI/ cricket club/ any other type of fete or fair, or to find the nearest ones to you this summer pop over to our fete finder.

some musical highlights from this year's fete

some musical highlights from this years fete

Here's a very quick run down of some of the great music acts we've booked in over the weekend so far (and a nice picture of a duck listening to music)...

It's an eclectic collection as ever.

James Taylor Quartet:

Imelda May
Faireys Band (see them in action at last year's fete here)
The Boy Least Likely To
Jive Aces
Josie Jo
Son of Dave :

Peter & The Wolf
Wallis Bird
James Yuill:

Prints Of Whales
Adam Callan's Sweet Memory Sounds
Cut A Shine:

Christian Prommer's Drumlesson
The Boy Least Likely To
Ukulele Orchestra of GB:

James Carrington
Imelda May
Dynamos Rhythm Aces
Josie Jo
Earl Okin:

Findlay Brown
Wallis Bird
Prints Of Whales
Adam Callan's Sweet Memory Sounds
Dynamos Rhythm Aces:

Cut A Shine
Cosmic Sausages

Still lots more to be confirmed.

our village fete is back like burt bacharach

It's time to dust off the bunting and straw hats again and start getting ready for the innocent village fete 2008. We've booked up our same little corner of Regent's Park, London, for the weekend of Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd of August this summer. The innocent village fete is back.

And so are our friends from last year, the brasstastic Faireys Band (we had to have them back after this)

and the marvelous Earl Okin.

Amongst many, many other musical and fete like highlights. Watch this space as they say.

Tickets are now available here, £7.50 for adults and £3.50 for kids (plus a £1.50 adult booking fee and £1 kids booking fee). Under 3s can come along for free. Both days sold out last year, so don't hang about, get yours sharpish.

our Morris dancers need us

When I was little, a traditional visit to a village fete or county show wasn't complete without a 99-er (when they really did cost just 99p), dropping said ice cream about five minutes after I'd bought it, and watching the Morris dancers.  However, word reaches us that their numbers are declining, so much so they're resorting to large marketing drives to try and encourage people to don bells on their knees and get handy with their hankies. 

This is sad news, especially as there is even talk about them including a spot of Morris action at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics.  If you or anyone else fancies a spot of public dancing which isn't just confined to the works of Justin Timberlake and Beyonce in Squires of a Saturday night, then you should definitely get in touch with your local branch.  If you'd like to work on some moves in the privacy of your own home, you might want to watch this. 

Thanks to Manchester Morris Men for the picture.

as if it were yesterday

We have to apologise that it's taken us so long to upload a film about our village fete this summer. It's been quite a while since the fete, it's got very cold between then and now for example.

But watching the highlights from our weekend in Regent's Park back in August has managed to warm us all up a bit this morning. It feels like it was only yesterday.

I'm going to go and buy an ice pop.

(The music is by The William Fairey Band incase you are wondering. They also played at our fete on Saturday to a rapturous reception).

and the winners of the fete flickr competition are...

The results are in and after a hotly contested vote we now have the 3 winners of our village fete flickr competition. We give you:

The best picture of bunting 2007

By Little Teabag.

Best fete game picture 2007

By Richard S.

And the best overall fete picture 2007

By Pirate Internet.

We'll be in direct contact with all 3 winners via flickr mail very soon. Congratulations to all of you on your imminent year's supply of smoothies. Don't drink it all at once.

every loser wins

It's been over ten long years since Wicksy first sat down at a piano and tinkled out 'Every Loser Wins' (they had amazing acoustics in the Queen Vic back then). Well this week we learnt the true poignancy of Wicksy's words the hard way.

Do you remember our attempt to break the world record for the longest bunting in the world at our village fete in Regent's Park? Well, we failed. We didn't quite make it. The current record is still held by Wendy Hughes, helped by 6,000 Buckinghamshire school children.

It's taken us a while to measure up all the different bits of bunting but the final total came to 0.455 miles, 771.72 metres short of the record unfortunately.

But as Wicksy sang, every loser does indeed win and we have also won in many ways...

You sent us so much beautifully handmade bunting that we felt truly in awe of your creativity and dedication.

We got to hang out with the Girl Guides for a weekend as they helped us to organise our attempt.

It got us all together for a lunch time of bunting making at Fruit Towers and cheered the office up with the tangles we put up afterwards (I bet the Central Office of Information has never looked like this on a random Wednesday in July).

And we all had a lovely couple of days out in the park.

We're sorry that we failed, but you can't win them all. We feel humble in our failure but would like to thank every single one of you who helped or donated bunting to the attempt.

Just watch this space next year, we're determined to get in that book now.

(Oh and if you fancy getting yourself one of those ghetto blasters that were all the rage in Albert Square in 1986 then have a look here).