High Street gets feel good factor (From Droitwich Advertiser)

High Street gets feel good factor

11:35am Tuesday 1st July 2008

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DROITWICH Spa's High Street traders will celebrate their recovery from last year's floods by holding a summer party.

The event, which will be held in the High Street on Saturday, July 19, from 12noon to 4pm, will be staged to remember the floods that devastated many of the businesses.

“While we cannot forget what happened, we feel it is now time to look to the future. The party will hopefully bring back the good feel factor to the High Street and remind people that we are open for business.”

Jan Bolton, chairman of DROIT

The High Street will get a taste of the Caribbean during the occasion, which has been organised by DROIT and Wychavon's area partnership manager. Although the floods had a devastating impact on many of the High Street stores, the organisers want it to be a good feel' event to celebrate the fact that so many shops have now re-opened.

DROIT, Droitwich Retailers Organisation for Independent Traders, was set up following the floods. The group wanted to hold an event to coincide with the first anniversary and decided, as it was also the start of the school summer break, to have a Caribbean theme, which will hopefully put visitors in the holiday spirit.

The event will start at midday with Samba Band Bandasemnome' from Alvechurch. There will also be music and dance and plenty of entertainment for children including puppet shows, circus skills, balloons, stilt walkers and face painting. To add to the fun there will also be a pirate boat in Gurney's Lane.

Waitrose will be offering visitors the chance to sample exotic fruits and other Caribbean delights in a food tent outside their store. There will also be a stall where visitors can experience Mexican culture.

The Spa Housing bus will be on hand to give advice on energy efficiency. The fire service will be setting up their inflatable smoke' house and youngsters will have the chance to explore a fire engine. There will also be photographic displays of last summer's floods.

Craft stalls will be in Saltbarrow market, alongside the regular market stalls.

Jan Bolton, chairman of DROIT, said: "The floods of last July were a complete shock and I know how hard many traders have worked over the last few months to re-open their businesses.

"While we cannot forget what happened, we feel it is now time to look to the future. The party will hopefully bring back the good feel factor to the High Street and remind people that we are open for business."

An art competition for local children will also be held in conjunction with the event. The theme for the competition is Caribbean' which will hopefully lead to plenty of creative ideas for competition entries.

There will be two age groups, up to age seven and eight to 12 years. Winners in each group will receive a voucher to spend in Toy World with £20 for first prize, £10 for second and £5 for third.

The competition entries will be displayed in Droitwich Community Contact Centre during the week running up to the party. Artwork should be on A4 paper with name, telephone number and age on the back and handed into the Droitwich Community Contact Centre, 44 High Street, by Thursday, July 10.

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