THE RETURN of a long-running family fun day has been hailed as the most successful ever despite controversy surrounding the event’s posters.
Held for the first time since 2019, the New Forest Family Fun Day in New Milton celebrated its busiest ever event on Saturday, June 11 – generating record amounts of money for the town’s community rugby club.
The event drew in excessive of 4,000 people to the event, where they were entertained with live wrestling, dinosaur shows, dog shows, live music, market stalls, a fun fair with rides, an inflatable zone, archery, and more.
Prior to the event being held, organisers were in uproar after some 25 posters put up across the town advertising the family fun day were removed without explanation.
Organiser Matt Wale says he believes they were removed by New Forest District Council, who did not respond to his concerns.
The district council did, however, apologise after removing posters promoting a separate Platinum Jubilee event also in New Milton.
While he has yet to receive answers or the posters back, Matt hailed the event as “the most successful in our history” and thanked the more than 100 volunteers who put on the fun day.
He told the Echo: “Following the signs being taken down, I took to social media to ask for peoples help to share, like and comment on all social media posts to help spread the word.
“The day would not have been possible without the 100-plus volunteers on the day, all associated with New Milton Rugby Club, so a huge thank you must go to them all.”
Regarding how much was raised for the rugby club, Matt said this was “still to be confirmed but we believe it will surpass our best ever total”.
The Fun Day management team of Matt and Katie Wale, Duncan and Sarah Conacher, Hayley Holden, Tim Ring, Mark Lavis and Jerry Holley will now get a well-deserved rest before planning starts again in January for next year’s event scheduled for June 10, 2023.
The Daily Echo approached New Forest District Council to comment on the signage issue but never received a response.
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