IT WAS a great success, say the organisers of the 2017 Swanmore Village Fete.

The Meon Valley Lions Club organised the fete and Ian Adams the publicity officer for the local Lions Club said: “It has been a very successful day. It has looked pretty full. It helped that the weather was kind. Almost too hot”

He added: “We’ve run this fete about 11 years, although it was going before that. It looked fuller this year than previous years. Everyone has been very pleased. We, the Lions, raise money for charity and serve the community, and that is what the fete is about.”

“We don’t know the full amount we have raised till later, but I believe we had at least 1000 paying visitors. Children were free.”

The Fete had 44 stalls ranging from bric-a-brac, books, jewellery, community first responders, the local Rowans hospice, the sunbeam foster agency, the air ambulance and various charities including open sight the charity for the sight impaired.

Musical entertainment was in many forms in the form of two bands the local college jazz band and a ukulele band from Swanmore. There was also a dance display from the Roynon School of Dance and a demonstration from Canine Partners of dogs that assist disabled people. The dogs were able open a washing machine and take washing out.

A classic car and bike display had about 100 cars and 50 motor bikes on show and a Chevrolet won the best car in show.

More unusual was a display of drones by the Heliquads club from Knowle and for the energetic the Marriot Hotel held an exercise boot camp.

Jo Fox the scout leader for 1st Swanmore Scouts said: “Our scouts, cubs and beavers have made a geodesic dome out of newspapers – a few Hampshire Chronicles are in them. It was done to give them a challenge, to create a feat of engineering and team work.”

Of the day she said: “It’s been lovely, our beavers and cubs have been on the stall, the scouts were litter picking and the rest of us have been making neckerchiefs and apple bobbing.”

Swanmore Urban Saints – a youth group connected to the Methodist Church were raising money for better sanitation in Africa. Sam Armstrong the youth leader, said: “We’ve been raising money for ‘toilet twinning’ in Africa. This is to help provide safe and clean sanitation for rural Africans. We’ve been using toilet related games to raise money, such as ‘throw the poo in the loo’, ‘splat the poo’ and ‘spend a penny’.

Becky Hayward from Hayward Carriages had a two horse carriage on the site said: “We took the fete king and queen around the site and into the arena and we gave carriage rides to anyone that wanted one.” She added: “It has been really successful. There’s been a good turnout. It’s been brilliant.”