BMDC of GB GOLDEN JUBILEE EVENT
What a way to celebrate 50 years!
Our Golden Jubilee was easily the largest Bernese event ever held in the UK in terms of the number of activities and events offered over 5 days. In different times we, and others, have had larger show entries but we have never had a such a sustained event, with day and night activities, over such a long period, as far as I know this has never happened anywhere outside the USA. The terrific feedback on Social Media and verbally from attendees has been fantastic and really is much appreciated.
Going Ahead
After deciding to proceed with our event as the world finally came out of COVID restrictions and then agreeing to carry on after the terrible events in Ukraine, we definitely had some concerns as the consequences of the latter developed through the summer to be more long-lasting and impactful than anyone imagined earlier in the year.
We watched and worried as show entries in the UK plummeted to unprecedented, at times unbelievably low numbers and whilst attendances at all the Golden Jubilee events were doubtlessly negatively affected by the rises in the cost of living we have to be delighted with the way our event was supported. In light of the economic difficulties faced by people we tried to keep things as cheap as possible and my personal feeling is that when all the expenses and costs have been summarised we will have made a significant overall loss on the event, mainly due to some higher than estimated prices and some lower than estimated attendances. Whilst, if it turns out to be the case, this is obviously not the preferable state, it is not important, our biggest priority was to put on a special Bernese event for everyone in the year we came out of COVID. As I kept saying to the audiences at different events, in the current financial climate we really did appreciate every attendance we had at every part of our Golden Jubilee.
One of the aims was to get the International Bernese Community together again after COVID and I think we can tick that box as the overseas BMD community were well represented with people from close on 20 countries attending and everyone took the many chances to interact with each other and their UK counterparts. The main purpose though was to provide a varied Bernese experience and a great Bernese break for visitors and we can definitely tick that box as well. There was something for everyone over the five days of the event but whilst the events and their content can be quantified and reported, the biggest bonus for people attending is the conversations and interaction with others at these gatherings.
There was a terrific positive vibe every night in the hall although time pressures meant we could not deliver everything we intended and the pressure created by the sheer volume of detail we attempted with so few people meant that a few planned things were dropped and small errors were made in some areas. However, none of these were serious and mostly barely noticed by others, but if we are honest you were often seeing the serene swan when there was frequently much frantic paddling going on unseen beneath the waterline! Whilst not everything went 100% as planned and there were definitely problems we had to overcome, and sometimes planned details that just didn’t have anyone to attend to them, every daytime and evening event was a great success and the feedback we have received confirms this. People are talking about lifetime memories so hopefully we created an event when everything clicked and it became something that was much more than the sum of its parts.
Opening Carting Parade
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Thank yous
Where do we start? We have thank everyone who supported our events and especially those who attended right through the 5 days. No matter how good the organisation may have been, the event would be nothing without people there to take be a part of the activities. People make atmosphere and the feeling throughout the days and nights was very positive one, so thank you for the terrific response to our events.
Several of the overseas visitors particularly, many of whom are used to organising events themselves, could not believe the whole Golden Jubilee event over 5 days and nights had been arranged by a sub committee of just 6 people but everyone seemed impressed by the massive effort being put in to deliver the events. When I addressed the audience at Friday evening’s main event it took no effort at all to invoke some really enthusiastic applause right across the 160+ visitors in the hall when I asked for a show of appreciation for each of the rest of the organising committee in turn, naming them as Fiona Hallam, Emily Green, Abbie Manix, Donna Hughes and Karen Bird, who typically of course tried to hide! Each of them received an extremely well deserved, rapturous thank you for their outstanding efforts. As an illustration of this most people would surely agree it was amazing, especially in these harsh financially pessimistic times, that if the retail value of all the sponsorship items accumulated was added up it came to over £13,500!! We have never had anything approaching a tenth of that before and this does not just happen for a little event like this, it takes persistence and imagination for months before the event.
On top of this there were some fantastic efforts at the event from other club committee members and a whole bunch of hardworking people who put in some real shifts at the event itself, day after day without being asked, we simply could not have managed without these amazing volunteers. Many visitors, especially the overseas people, also spontaneously helped convert the hall from daytime to evening appearance on several days and these sorts of things helped to generate a good community atmosphere bringing people together, even before the official activities began and we are extremely grateful for all the help we were given. Although we barely had time to speak to each other much of the time, it was a collective effort and would not have been anything like the success without so many people playing a part. Thank you to everyone who helped in big and small ways.
Finally, thank you to everyone for all the fantastic reviews and comments we have received so far in person at the event and on Social Media. We really do appreciate every one of them.
Respects
Our event followed the death of our late monarch HM Queen Elizabeth the Second and we held an immaculately observed minute’s silence followed by the National Anthem at the start of our Friday show day.
On Saturday morning we paid equally well observed respects to our last surviving founder member and long time committee member Lena Robbins as this was our first event since her recent passing.
Photographs
We had professional canine photographers, Four Little Paws, in attendance officially recording events for our records but we also invite people to send in their own photos from the event to be included in the online album. So, if you have any photos at any of the events of your family, friends or dogs enjoying the event you’d like to share we can compliment the official photos please send in, up to 10 per person, and they can be added to the online album which will be accessible from here and will grow as photos are sent in or become available. (Please ensure anyone featured in the photos is happy for them to be published). Please forward these to web@bernese.co.uk With so much happening in the daytime and the evenings and only one official photographer it is inevitable that some happenings will not have official photographs so we would love to get your photos of these when we can identify them and cover them on this web site and in our planned on line album. You can use the links below to see all the photos we have from the event in several online galleries on the club’s smugmug photo site. More details via the links below
The shows and specific events have their own pages of reports and results, links below, but other updates on smaller parts of the event will appear below here so don’t forget to scroll down.
Thank you again to all organisers, helpers and visitors, whether actively helping or just being there to be a part of it, YOU ALL played a role in making the overall event the huge special success it was.
Steve Green
President BMDC of GB
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Links to Other Specific Event/Activity Reports
Most of these will be updated more as reports and more photos become available and fresh links will appear as other event reports are available.
The International Health Symposium
Berner Bar Evening including Veterans Parade
(Friday) Championship Show (Jens & Lisbet Ramsing) & Limited Obedience Show – Show Judges’ Reports and Obedience report plus photos now available
British Fete Night (Friday) – Jubilee Toast, Auction, Torchlit Carting, Champions Parade
Golden Jubilee Championship Show (Helen Davenport Willis) & Junior Handling – some photos now available
50th Anniversary Championship Show (Steve Green) – some photos and show results now available
Swiss Breeds Event, Fun Dog Show, Good Citizens & Character Assessment (Saturday)
The International Judges Meeting
Golden Jubilee event photography page – incl link to full online galleries and details of how you can find and obtain copies of the official photographs
More reporting and links to specific event reports will appear here in the coming days and weeks.
The Cake
Of course no proper celebration would be complete without a cake and we had several available through the week. The main Golden Jubilee cake was presented on Friday evening and cut by our amazing, ageless Patron, Maurice Johnson, before being shared out to the audience. We would like to thank Local Farm Box for their generous donation of this special cake.
As well as the official duties we gave him, it was great to see Maurice and Christine pottering around the show in such fine fettle and we think them for their multi pronged support of our event. I think Maurice had a great time and we hope to see them around next year as well. Maurice has been supporting the club for about half of its history and been involved in several of our top moments.
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On Site Camping
Many people chose to camp on site and they were in the efficient hands of Camp Site CoOrdinator and Committee Member Malcolm Peter who dealt with all the arising issues and looked after everyone with his usual attention to detail and forward planning. There were over 60 units at the peak so Malcolm’s work was much needed and appreciated.
Photos below all courtesy of Show Dog Media
