Garden Show Cancelled
« Back to newsThu, 26 April 2012
After a week of terrible weather including torrential rain and high winds, organisers of the 2012 Spring Garden show at Robin Hill have had no choice but to cancel this year’s event.
Darren Cool, Robin Hill’s Park & Event Manager, had to make the difficult decision after a site inspection at 9am this morning (Thursday) with the event’s Management Team.
“We are dreadfully disappointed to have to make this call so close to the event, but the show’s two event fields and the main car parks are completely waterlogged after this spell of horrendous weather. The fields certainly won’t be able to stand up to thousands of visitors & cars over the next few days. We have had over two inches of rain in the last 48 hours alone and the forecast is looking equally unsettled for the weekend. To get all the show’s exhibitors on and off the site safely and sensibly would be extremely difficult. Ultimately people’s safety and well being is paramount and something we cannot risk.”
The Wightlink and County Press sponsored show was due to take place for the sixth year at the Park this weekend (28th & 29th April). It has grown into a very popular event amongst local people.
Darren went on to say;
“We know lots of people are going to be disappointed at the decision, but we’ve tried to remain optimistic about the weather since last Friday when the forecast started to look very poor. Long term forecasts for the Island can often be wrong, and we hoped that would be the case here. However, the weather has turned out to be even worse than was being predicted.
We had a river of water flowing through the Floral Marquee this morning after our land drains couldn’t take any more. It was ironic that we have just had the driest winter on record, but Mother Nature usually has to balance things up. It’s just a shame that she chose this week to do it. The Robin Hill team have been pulling out the stops to make the event happen in some quite dreadful conditions, but we cannot overcome such insurmountable problems such as severe water logging. Let’s hope next year we get more fortunate.”
Any further information can be obtained from the Garden show office on 01983 556050, where refunds can be organised for advanced ticket holders and exhibitors.