Wilmslow Town Council are continuing to work on plans for celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in the town, during the special 4-day weekend at the beginning of June.
At their meeting, on Monday 20th February, councillors agreed to allocate a budget of £10,000 towards a Picnic in the Park. The event will take place in The Carrs on Bank Holiday Monday, June 4th, from 1pm to 5pm.
It was also agreed that the working party, set up to look at ideas for celebrating this significant achievement of Her Majesty, should expand to bring in people outside of the Town Council who would like to get involved.
The Town Council do not expect to spend £10,000 on this event, which represents 20% of their annual budget for events and festivals, but they wanted to ensure that they would not be prevented from doing things they wished to do because of lack of funds.
The money will cover the cost of hiring a covered stage, toilets, sound system and engineer to ensure things work properly on the day, along with additional costs.
Cllr Ruth McNulty, Vice-Chairman of Wilmslow Town Council, said "This is going to be the biggest event of the year and we do not want to skimp on this as we will only get one Diamond Jubilee in our lifetime."
Members of Wilmslow Symphony Orchestra have agreed to perform at the event. The orchestra will not perform a whole, instead three different ensembles will perform during the afternoon, with approximately twelve musicians taking to the stage each time.
Cllr Ellie Brooks said "They are the first people who have actually said yes so this is just the start."
The idea is to get other educational and voluntary groups involved and maybe a small amount of professional entertainment.
Matthew Jackson, Clerk of Wilmslow Town Council, explained "What we anticipate is that through this event we bring community groups together so that other events can be organised off it. We'd like to bring people together in a central area and make it a vehicle for the whole of the community."
He added "We are also looking at the possibility of planting a Jubilee wood, this would be at no cost to the Town Council because the trees would come from the Woodland Trust but they would need to be planted by volunteers. We are also in the process of dealing with a competition run through the schools to create a lasting monument."
