Falmouth Spring Festival's Guerrilla gardening scoops award!

Derelict site revamp at Bell’s Court recognised at Cornwall in Bloom Awards

An innovative community focussed project, kick-started as part of the first Falmouth Spring Festival, has scooped a coveted award at the annual Cornwall in Bloom awards gala. The Guerrilla Gardening Day at Bell’s Court in the centre of town, was organised in an effort to spruce up an historic but neglected corner of Falmouth. Over five tonnes of rubbish and foliage including six 30ft Buddleia trees and a number of heavy white goods were cleared off the site by volunteers one sunny Saturday back in March this year. Donated shrubs and flowers were then planted turning the 40ftx25ft site into an amenable space that can be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike. An agreement was then reached between the Falmouth BID and Falmouth Town Council to ensure the ongoing maintenance of the area.

The Falmouth Spring Festival is another project funded and organised by the Falmouth Business Improvement District (BID), who worked with local traders, organisations such as Falmouth Town Council, NMMC, University College Falmouth and Event Cornwall to put together a host of exciting events, activities and community themed initiatives that sought to celebrate Falmouth’s parks, gardens and open spaces. The BID responded to town BID levy businesses’ suggestions and ideas for an early season event that would not only promote Falmouth beautiful places but help to raise the town’s profile further in an effort to attract extra visits and spend. The first Spring Festival in March 2011 did just that, with figures gathered post event suggesting over 4,000 attended the numerous guided walks, talks, Gardeners’ Question Time, Rockpooling on Castle Beach, Spring Fashion Show and Discovery Quay Spring Fair events, with several traders reporting an increase in footfall during the week.

Now firmly on the annual Falmouth events calendar, the second Falmouth Spring Festival will take place between 17^th-25^th March 2012 and a number of new events are planned including a big pavement art event in conjunction with Falmouth Art Gallery and a Zumba Zestifal both taking place on The Moor, the latter aiming to be the largest open air Zumba event seen in Cornwall.  More community based schemes will be organised in collaboration with Falmouth schools and UCF students and a number of sites will be tackled by the Guerrilla Gardening crew.