Day One:  SATURDAY 4 August

 

Morning:

Town Crier opens Alderney Week and the KFA girls are dancing in the street

Town Crier Competition

Disneyland comes to Alderney: a colourful star-studded parade to mark the start of Alderney Week. 

Lunchtime Jazz at the Georgian Garden Beyond

 

 Afternoon:

The Great Alderney Week Fun Triathlon 

National Velvet – Hobby Horse Race at Braye Beach for children and adults 

 

Evening:

“Hollywood Night Club”. Family BBQ, disco at the Butes

Live music with Alderney’s fab Blooze Crewz, followed by

Mr. Alderney 2007 Competition & Disco dancing until midnight.

Warm-up to the Holly Woodstock across the Island’s favourite Watering Holes  

Holly Woodstock party at Corporation Quarry

 

Alderney Week 2007 kicked off this morning with the dulcet tones of Alderney Town Crier Bill Walden declaring the 9-day carnival open at precisely 10.30 o’clock at the bottom of Victoria Street.

 

Would-be criers, young and old – including Alderney’s Chief Executive David Jeremiah – enjoyed the opportunity to share their vocal skills despite some dodgy script-writing; and the young Alderney Pommerettes and the KFA Teen Team displayed their dance skills and new costumes with lively fresh routines which received much applause from an expectant and appreciative audience.

This year’s Alderney Week theme is “Hollywood ” and that was duly reflected in the colourful and lively “Disneyland comes to Alderney” parade led by Mickey and Minnie Mouse,  Cinderella, Snow White and Belle .

 

And below is a report by ITV Channel Television’s Alderney reporter and cameraman Nigel Soane-Sands:

  

 “The sunny afternoon of Day One of Alderney Week saw two new pretty energetic events and their success suggests both are likely to become permanent fixtures.

 

The fun triathlon attracted around 50 competitors with some teams working as a relay. One intrepid team whose 3 members undertook every leg was the RNLI entry in full kit.

 

Being part of Alderney Week, the triathlon was staged in reverse order with cycling the first 2km leg from the Braye Beach Hotel to the Hammond Memorial.  Then a testing 5km run clockwise out the lighthouse and back to Braye for the 200 yard swimming leg.

 

Former Olympic swimming champion Duncan Goodhew presented the medals and prizes. 25-year old Simon Benfield finished first in an impressive 20 minutes. 17-year old Rosie Evans was the first woman home, and the fastest family team was the Voights. “

Next up on the beach was musical hobby horse racing with its fair share of Grand National style false starts, falls and horses being pulled up.

 

40 children – girls and boys - competed in heats with the mixed final being won by 10-year old Sam Theakston, a length clear of 11-year old Katie Spencer-Jones who just edged 11-year old Hermione Hill into 3rd by a nose.

 

The same thoroughbreds were then put through their paces by rather bigger kids and in the highly competitive mixed final for adults, Chris Drake showed a clean pair of hoofs to the rest of the field. Ben Spencer-Jones was always a good each-way bet finishing 2nd, and rank outsider Trish Lewis caused the bookies something of a headache by clinching 3rd place.” 

 

 

The first ever family BBQ and disco at the Butes, followed by live music courtesy of Alderney’s very own Blooze Crewz proved a great success and concluded with the Mr. Alderney 2007 contest where 18-year old Matt Gaudion claimed this year’s title.  Matt was later seen heading for the Quarry Party clutching his Oscar, a bottle of champagne and several most attractive ladies.

 

Meanwhile numerous partygoers had dressed up for the “Holly Woodstock” Quarry Party and after parading their costumes at the Butes and in a number of themed watering holes throughout the island, joined other revellers in the Corporation Quarry for non-stop dancing until 7.30am the following morning. What a night!

 

 

These photos were taken by Ilona Soane-Sands, Joanna Parmentier, James Adair and Ian Laurence and can be downloaded for your personal use. Any commercial use of these photographs requires the prior authorisation of Alderney Week. Please email info@alderneyweek.net  with your request.  More photographs are published on the official Alderney website. Click here

 

 

 

An even larger number of digital high- resolution photographs of today’s and all major Alderney Week events, totalling in excess of 1,700 images -  are available on a DVD (Cost £5 + postage) and will be released by mid-September.  To order, simply send a cheque for £5 payable to Alderney Week  (for off-island orders please add £1 for package & postage) and let us have your full postal address details.