The first Festival of Chill on Saturday 14th March was a great success, involving around 70 swimmers racing in 9.8° water, supported by more than 20 smiling volunteers from the pool.
The organisers would like to thank everyone who helped the day run smoothly and made it so much fun – plus donated to Arthur Rank! The total amount raised via ticket sales and donations direct to the charity was almost £1300.
Attendees were lucky with some spectacular weather – even the hail waited until we were packing up. We had great media coverage in the run up to and after the event with slots on ITV Anglia and BBC Look East, and articles in local magazines, on the BBC website and in the Cambridge Independent.
There was the whole range of cold water swimming on show from the full-on no neoprene races, head up breaststroke and some brilliant costumes for the fancy dress relay.
There was a raffle with some fabulous prizes including tickets to see Cruz Beckham’s band, Scudamores punting and Tivoli mini golf vouchers and several swimming related treats.
We had food from the café, Scott’s on Mill Road and a homemade cake stall to raise funds for the hospice. There were stalls selling wild swimming books, Swimbler waterproof bobble hats made especially for swimming, our very own Jesus Green 100 Yards, 100 Voices book, and a stall of Danya Harris’ swimming and river-inspired greetings cards.
We finished off with the Centenary Cygnets’ coldest synchro performance yet. Having been perfecting their routine in the warm diving pool at Parkside, they have been declared, “not as funny as they used to be!” by a member of café staff, apparently because they are much more synchronised than previously.
If you’d like to donate you can still visit the event’s Just Giving page : https://www.justgiving.com/page/catherine-hayhurst-3?utm_source=CL&utm_medium=DT
Credit and thanks for photographs to Charles Greensitt.
