In pictures: Thriplow Daffodil Weekend is sell-out success

A huge crowd welcomed the start of spring at the Thriplow Daffodil Weekend & Country Fair.

Held over the weekend (22-23 March), the popular event supports small and local traders, and also allows the organisers to forge new connections.

The Cambridge Russian Speaking Society were invited as VIPs, with 30 Ukrainian refugees, to meet people from the Convoy4Ukraine charity.

Also attending were students from West Suffolk College on the media, film and journalism course, who were given the opportunity to film the event.

This meant that the bands – who played for free – were able to benefit from some better quality promotional videos.

Paul Earnshaw, the festival’s chairman, said the event was “really good”and that it sold out on both days, with a total of 12,000 visitors.

More than 400 volunteers were involved and there were more than 100 stalls, with everything from blacksmiths to Morris dancers, live music and street food to entertain.

“We had that warm weather leading up to the weekend, that brought all the daffodils out all at the same time,” added Paul.

And although there was a little rain at times, it didn’t impact the festival for too long.

“You can’t run an outdoor flower event in March and expect to have perfect weather all the time!,” said Paul.

He added: “The village is tiny. There’s only 350 of us, so to put up 12,000 visitors is quite a thing... And they come from all over – from Dorset, from Cumbia, Bristol and so on. Last year we even had visitors from Australia.”

And there’s no rest. Paul revealed that he attended a meeting on Monday (24 March) to start planning for next year.