The Donnybrook Apple Festival 1957

At a public meeting on the 1st June it was decided to hold the Apple Festival at Donnybrook in 1957. The £1000 ($2000) held in the bank for the reconstruction of the Egan Park Pavilion would not be enough to carry out the work and it was estimated that another £800 ($1600) would be required. As it would be very desirable to have the work done before the next Apple Festival, Vin Farley proposed that if the £800 ($1600) for the work was guaranteed from the proceeds of the 1957 Festival he would give an interest free loan of £100 ($200) to the committee as long as seven other donors could be found. Three other people offered money on the night and the offer was accepted with thanks. Many new ideas were also aired at the meeting including a twelve- hour car trial.

At a meting held at Bridgetown the three towns decided to change the method of selecting the winning Apple Queen. It was felt that to "buy" the right to be Queen was not fair and that it could "kill" the festival. The financial aspect could not be overlooked however and each town would have to raise £500 ($1000) to gain the 50 points that would be allocated for money raised. The remaining 50 points would be allocated on the basis of 20 points for knowledge of the apple industry and 30 points for personality. The girl would have to be at least 17 years old on the day of the Festival and each town would have to enter a minimum of two queen contestants. Each town committee would keep all the money raised by their own queens and the organisations sponsoring each queen would have to pay their money to the central committees. Donnybrook had three queen contestants: Des Attwood, nominated by Burridge and Warren; Pauline Miller nominated by Donnybrook Sports Clubs; and Pat Thompson, nominated by the Donnybrook District Hospital. Bridgetown also had three contestants: Judith Ashley, nominated by the local Fruitgrowers Association; Judith Hendry, nominated by the Bridgetown Hospital Board; and Rosslyn Walter nominated by the Bridgetown R.S.L.   (Courtesy of Doug Henderson's book "Apple Queens & Festivals")

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We invite people to provide us with photos of previous apple festival queens and floats. Anyone who has photos can drop them into "Crendon Machinery", all photos will be returned.

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The next Donnybrook Apple Festival is in Easter 2010

email: info@donnybrookapplefestival.com           Last modified: 29-Sep-2008