It is both a privilege and a pleasure as Chairman of Wisbech Round Table, to invite you all to attend the 51st Rose Fair parades on July 5.

In keeping with tradition, there will be two parades, the first starting at 11am and then again at 2pm. The parades will start in Queen’s Road, and will follow the same route as previous years including the Market Place, Church Terrace and continuing along West Street. This year, the parades will be lead by our Rose Queen April Rose Bryant-Jenns.

The Rose Fair Parade is a unique event that Wisbech Round Table is extremely proud to organise. It brings a carnival atmosphere to our town and captures the true spirit of people coming together from different organizations and walks of life.

People travel from various parts of the country to attend and see the large number of wonderfully decorated floats, bands and vehicles that are entered each year.

The theme for this year is ‘Great Television Moments’ and I am delighted that schools, organisations, clubs and charities have again made a huge effort to take part, with over 16 floats entered.

As the parades travel through the town, you will see our official collectors walking along side carrying a bucket with our Round Table Rondel on it, collecting any loose change you may have. Please give generously, as all the money collected is distributed by Round Table to help and support good local causes.

Wisbech Round Table has a policy that ‘All the money we raise from local events is spent locally’. You may have seen some of the individuals and clubs that we help being published in our local newspapers, but we support many more, and we are only able to do this through your kind generosity with the money collected from the day.

During the four days of Rose Fair we also have a plant stall in the church gardens and on the Saturday we will be holding a barbecue there, so please come along and see us, get your lunch and drinks as all money we raise will also go to good local causes.

So if you are a regular attendee, thank you for your support again this year. If you are new to Wisbech, or have never been before, then I urge you to come along, see how good it is, and be part of the one day of the year that brings the Wisbech area together.

Finally I would like to thank my fellow Tablers for the hard work they put into organizing the parades, with a special mention to Sam Smith who as chairman of our Rose Fair Committee has overseen the details in ensuring that this year’s event goes ahead.

Also a big ‘thank you’ to all of our sponsors for all the generous support they have given to help pay for the parades, the transport firms who provide the lorries and drivers, all of the entrants for the Rose Queen competition, Fenland District Council for its continued support, all the entrants who put so much hard work into making the floats, and finally all the people who come and watch on the day making it such an enjoyable event.

A special thanks go to businesses that have already given donations including: Fenland District Council, Drake Towage, Elgood & Sons, Alfred Harrold (Containers), SB Components (International), Moore Thompson, Robert Davis (Potatoes), English Brothers, Foster Property Maintenance, Humphrey Associates, Fraser Dawbarns, Supercrete Groundworks, HL Hutchinson, BD Upton Builders, The Chameleon, M Starr Property Investments, The Hare & Hounds, Bulley Davey, Metcalfe Copeman & Pettefar, Bloom & Wake, Anglia Components, Geoff Beel Consultancy, Blue Chip Brand Solutions, Crowson & Ward, DA Gathercole, Brown & Co, Priden Engineering, Wheelers and Trevor Campion.

We would urge any businesses who wish to make further donations to send cheques made payable to Wisbech Round Table to 27 29 Old Market, Wisbech, PE13 1NE.

Any individuals who wish to donate can do so using the Charity Text Giving Service by texting ROSE37 followed by the amount you wish to donate to 70070.

Once again, we would like to thank all those who support the Rose Fair and we hope that you enjoy the parade.