- History

History

Company Info

History

The origins of the Dowlish Wake Festival Society are recent and only go back to 1995 when a number of villagers got together to form a committee to organise a fete in celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of VE Day - Victory in Europe. The Nation was celebrating the event in a similar popular way that it did for Her Majesty the Queen's Silver Jubilee and is doing for the Queen's Golden Jubilee. This event in May 1995 proved to be great fun, very popular and successful. The committee decided to try and organise a fun event with which to commemorate VJ Day - Victory over Japan - when the Second World War was finally over. And so, in reforming the organising committee to prepare 'something' for August and VJ Day, it was felt that the committee should be set up for the benefit of the village as a whole. There were already committees for the Lawrence Kellett Memorial Playing Fields, the Speke Hall and St Andrew's Church, each of which had traditionally organised their own money raising events. The 'new' committee wanted to be all embracing with the intention to distribute any surplus funds to these three village institutions. The first thought was that the committee would call itself the Dowlish Wake Friendly Society - for that is exactly what the members wanted to be - bi-partisan and to the benefit and advantage of Dowlish Wake as an entity. As the Dowlish Wake Friendly Society, the 50th Anniversary VJ Day event was planned, executed and thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended. The day culminated with Fireworks having included a Duck Race - the first of what has since been an annual event in Dowlish Wake. Part of this committee organised a 5th November Bonfire that same year in which a huge fire was built and the fireworks worked despite a very strong wind! Our hopes to have the Dowlish Wake Friendly Society recognised came to a sudden end when it was learnt that legally, a 'Friendly Society' had very different connotations than we bad imagined and the title had to be quickly dropped. However, the idea and concept of a committee to organise village events was not dead for, by using the same set of initials, DWFS, the new name of the Dowlish Wake FESTIVAL Society was born. It was, after all, for a festival of fun that the idea was first conceived. The final event of the first year of the Dowlish Wake Festival Society was a 'Cheese and Wine Party' at which cheques for in excess of £200 each were presented to the Playing Fields, Speke Hall and St Andrew's. Although there remains a committee as enthusiastic as ever, many of the founding members retired. But the concept and original ideas for the village community spirit remain with the activities of the Dowlish Wake Festival Society.

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