Eltham Park Festival 2019
Report written by Chris Warrell for our Autumn 2019 Newsletter
Sunday 28 July 2019
Eltham Park South
Eltham
Last year’s event was cancelled due to poor weather and, in the week before this event, I was checking the forecast every day to try and predict what would happen. In the event, the weather was quite pleasant with not too much sun, but no hint of rain. The crowds built up quite quickly so, when I arrived just before noon, people were already there. Our Meccano stand had a gazebo formerly in use by an MOT test centre, so it was covered by their logos and offers of ‘No Pass, No Fee’. Luckily, no one tried to hold us to it!
Also in our tent was a sole representative from Welling Model Club, who spent the day carrying out some very intricate painting of some soldiers.
An overview of our marquee and the Make It With Meccano workshop
The Make It With Meccano tables were in the fresh air and were busy all day — Tim ran out of certificates!
Les Chatfield brought his models in a suitcase on the train, but still managed to fit in some very tall models, including an impressive dive bomber fairground ride which only just cleared the struts of the tent!
Tim, Santiago, Les and Brian hide behind Les’s gigantic models
Santiago Plicio spent most of the afternoon dismantling his large crane, so that by the end of the afternoon all the superstructure was in a number of carrier bags!
Santiago dismantling his crane
The festival was open from 12 noon — 5:00pm, and it hardly let up until the very end. I had a bite to eat from the café, which was providing a very limited selection of food. According to Geoff Tatman of the Police (who are event organisers) the food ran out at 3:00pm! Hopefully they’ll order more supplies next year.
There were plenty of stalls around a small area of the park, including the local micro-pub, the Police with some old vehicles, and local groups. The event is expected to run again next year.
Models on display:
- Les Chatfield: Dive bomber ride, funicular railway.
- Brian Leach: Meccasaur, fire truck, marionette.
- Santiago Plicio: Large crane.
- Tim Surtell: The Lightning Leap, The Spanish Knight, maracas, Connect Four game.
- Chris Warrell: Daleks, narrow gauge steam locomotive, tunnel boring machine, tug, BMX bike.