Falmouth BID Update

Richard Wilcox, Falmouth BID Manager

Arts Fest 7-16^th Sept
The schedule to this new BID funded and organised festival is gathering pace:

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* Top names from the world of literature and illustration will be headlining the Book Festival element

·       * Thanks to the efforts of Falmouth Art Gallery who will work closely with BID, the Festival has been awarded an Arts Council grant which will enable top regional artists to create innovative and original installations throughout the town during the week

·        * Art in shops,

·        * Art afloat

·        * A big community draw project and more besides.

BID will extensively promote and market this as we do all other festivals in a concerted effort to raise the profile of Falmouth and drive in extra footfall. Much more will be announced and circulated very soon.

PR

The BID commissioned Press Pack for Falmouth and enhanced sell-in has elicited some very good results - The Sun, BBC Olive, Woman’s Weekly and Sunday Mail have all visited and been hosted, with articles to follow. In the past 7 weeks of BID PR activity alone, over £26,000 worth of national coverage/articles for Falmouth has been secured.

Fal River Festival

A reminder which I’m sure you don’t need, but Fal River Festival kicks off this weekend - another cracking event in our brilliant events calendar. BID as it does for all main festivals now, supports the marketing effort. You can view the schedule of activities here http://www.falriver.co.uk/whats-on/fal-river-festival

Big Lunch
To clarify, the Big Lunch is taking place on Sunday July 1^st in Kimberley Park

The Front
Congratulations to The Front pub voted CAMRA Pub of the Year for the second year in a row. Release enclosed:

The 'Front, in Falmouth, has been voted pub of the year for the second year in a row by members of CAMRA Kernow, the Cornish branch of the Campaign for Real Ale. It's yet another success for the small but perfectly formed pub that last year made it to the final shortlist of four for the national pub of the year title. The pub focuses on selling mostly Cornish real ales, with breweries such as Coastal, Tintagel, Rebel and Chough featuring regularly on a varied beer menu. Most of the beers are dispensed on gravity from barrels on a stillage that was erected for a beer festival a few years back and subsequently was never taken down.

Manager Matt Reay leads a knowledgeable and friendly team who dispense not only great real ales but also a range of bottled and foreign beers plus half a dozen or so draught ciders. He said he owed a lot of success to the staff who created a great atmosphere drinkers love. "Nice people attract nice people," said Matt, enjoying a celebratory pint in the pub's outside area which looks over Custom House Quay to the harbour. "And the range and quality of the breweries and the beers is great."

The lease of the pub is owned by Sean McGee who purchased it when he was running the Grapes pub in Falmouth, where he employed Matt. When asked if would consider setting up another pub on the same lines as the 'Front, he shook his head and pointed to Matt. "I'd need another one of him," he said. A menu of 11 beers was put before the large crowd who attended the presentation ceremony, with a large contingent of CAMRA Kernow members.

The presentation was made by branch chairman, Norman Garlick, who praised Matt's incredible achievement over the past two years. "Matt and his team have done exceptionally well in that not only did they win last year's pub of the year but they've done it this year too. Not only that but they made it into the last four of the national pub of the year contest." He urged non-CAMRA members enjoying the pub's hospitality to join him in a toast to the pub, and indeed in celebrating the success of all Britain's great pubs and hard-working publicans.

Find out more about Falmouth BID here