Just four weeks to go until the big day and the heat is really on for the Jersey Young Farmers Club – but at least their speakers are fitted. Anthony Dearie catches up with the float-builders
WITH the Battle of Flowers getting ever nearer, the Jersey Young Farmers Club have now upped the number of times a week that they are working on their float – but they have still got a long way to go before the entry is anywhere near finished.
However, since we last caught up with them the team have made significant progress. Their speakers are now fitted and many parts of the exhibit are really starting to take shape.
‘Our speakers are fitted by ex-Young Farmer Tim Luce,’ explained Emily Ryan, the club’s Battle chairman. ‘Every year he organises for us to hire some equipment from Delta and lets us borrow some of his own as well.
He has to find exactly the right places to put them on the float so that the sound comes out well. This means he has to find gaps and create spaces for them. This year we have got three at the front and a couple dotted around the sides.’
With the speakers in place, the next thing that had to be decided on was the music. As the exhibit – called Jersey Young Farmers Chaos – has a farming and country theme, the team have decided to mix in three songs: Marty Stuart’s Hillbilly Rock, Combine Harvester by The Wurzels and Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex.
Once the three songs are edited together, team member Holly Fraser – recently crowned Miss Battle 2008 – will choreograph a routine for the team members to perform in the parade.
Building-wise, Emily says that everything has been continuing well over the past fortnight and that the float is now starting to take shape.
‘The boys have started to build the fence which the tractor is going to be crashing through and they have been finishing the animals off,’ she said. ‘That is all going really well. We have practised the tractor going up and down and it works really well. The cuckoo clock is also working, as are the pop-up rabbits.
‘Meanwhile, the girls have been carrying on with the harestailing. It’s coming on slowly but surely, but time seems to have suddenly crept up on us. Unfortunately, we haven’t got a massive team of girls this year because people are travelling or away at uni and the guys definitely wouldn’t do it as they would rather stick to their manly work.’
Since the last instalment, the club has started working an extra night – Mondays – each week and has also extended the length of the Sunday session.
The Young Farmers have also received the welcome news this fortnight that they will be receiving sponsorship from Bartlett’s – though they are still waiting to hear back from some of the other companies that they approached.
As well as funding for the float, another thing that the Young Farmers are desperate to find for their float this year is pampas grass.
‘If anyone has pampas grass of any colour that we could have that would really help us, for example if anyone has a bush in their garden that we could trim,’ said Emily. ‘We can’t find anyone that sells it over here and it is very expensive anyway.
Grouville have kindly given us some but we need rather a lot more. We will be using it for our chicken and flames and stuff, to create added detail. It is such thin stuff that we need quite a lot to cover those areas. If we don’t get any we will have to change our source, but pampas grass would be ideal.’
One part of their design that the team has already had to alter is the colour scheme of the ‘wooden’ parts of their float.
‘Our grower in Holland were supposed to be doing 2,600 stems worth of special browny-orange flowers for us, to cover things likes wooden boxes. However, he has now decided not to grow them, so they are going to be a much brighter orange now instead. It’s a shame but it will have to do.’
So what is next for the team?
‘Again, we will just be carrying on with everything,’ said Emily. ‘Everyone has their own little projects now which they are working on. Some of the younger ones will begin papering over the joins to make them smooth and hopefully we will start painting soon to bring colour and life to the float.
‘We may have to modify a few things, depending on time. For example we were going to have a few pigs but we have now decided to have just one.
‘We have now got three weeks left until we start flowering so it is going to be a mad panic.’
Article posted on 18th July, 2008 - 2.53pm
