"From what had gone before this was certain to be..........A Picnic."

TimeWarp Picnickers, August 2015

Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

Our TENTH Picnic took place on Sunday 30th August, 2015.

For once the traffic on the M25 was running well as we headed out to the tenth picnic. We arrived in plenty of time and managed to check in to our room a couple of hours early. As always the turn into the driveway and that first glimpse of our 'Transylvanian' flag flying above the hotel caused an big grin to appear on my face once more. We parked up and headed in to the hotel, spotting a few familiar faces on the way in.

We have always intended the picnic to be a nice relaxed event for the fans and this year, as always, did not disapoint. We got changed and headed down to the lawn, via the bar, to meet up with those that had also arrived early along with a few that had booked an extra night and had arrived on the Saturday.

We spent a pleasant hour or three chatting with some old friends and making some new ones. As always everyone was friendly and we swapped a few stories about the picnics and Rocky in general. One or two people were a little shy to come up and say hello to start, but soon realised that the Rocky family are happy to welcome all. Along with picnickers from France and Spain this year we were joined from a few folks from Australia and the USA. I got to chat to the lovely Quad from the states, someone I haven't seen for too long. We also had a nice chat with the owner of the hotel (not that we realised at the time) and were pleased to hear he enjoyed having us at the hotel. We love being there each year, the one day we can run around the place in our costumes, and have always found the staff there to be the best.

Just before the food, we all (well most of us) got together for the usual group photo on the lawn. There were sixty of us in the photo so we were only missing a few people for the shot.

The picnic itself started at around 4pm, well I say picnic but nowadays we have lovely tables laid out for us on the lawn. Although there were some clouds (light, grey and not at all pendulous) the weather stayed fine for the food, which as always was to die for. Oakley Court are a five star hotel for several reasons and this was one of them. The deserts were gorgeous too, it is rumoured that a certain person ate the last remaining seven crème brûlées rather than see them go to waste as they were so nice.

Two hours later the last of the picnickers headed off to wander the grounds and chat with our fellow fans once more. Loads of photos later, galleries below, we headed back to our rooms to get ready for the movie screening.

As always, with the kind permission of 20th Century Fox, we screened The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the hotel. I never get over the fact that we get to watch the outside of the building we are in on screen and the castle/hotel always gets a huge cheer when it first appears. The screening was great fun as always, before the movie we watched a film JonJo had put together as well as a couple of things from our archive. We even had a little bit of movie shadowing from one of our American guests. I'd brought along a load of av kit myself but the hotel had, as promised last year, upgraded their projection and sound system and the place rocked. Next year a bigger screen is on the cards, so that should lift it once again.

Special thanks to Tim and Claudine as well as JonJo and Hagrid (Richard) for making a gift or two for all the attendees, it was really appreciated by everyone. On a personal note, thanks to fan club rep Rob for the little gift he made for Stephanie and myself to celebrate our tenth picnic.

After the movie screening and a quick wander around to do a few more 'night' pictures of the hotel we headed back to the bar for a quick drinkie or two, which for some turned into another three hours. The hotel had even created a special Rocky Horror cocktail, very nice, not quite sure how high the alcohol content was, but let's just say 'not low'. We headed off to bed around two, but others kept going for a lot longer.

The next morning we headed, bright and breezy, down to breakfast. Oakley had made what we thought was the best breakfasts anywhere even better. Love the new look layout to the breakfast room. We got to play our favourite game of guess who everyone was dressed as the day before. Some of us look just the same without our costumes, others totally different and it's good fun to spot who is who.

After breakfast and a bit of a rest we headed back down from our room for one final meet up and to check out and say our goodbyes to friends old and new. The rain, which had held off for the picnic, was descending at a great rate so the usual photos and meet up by the fountain were moved inside to the 'Time Wap' room. Everyone seemed to have a good time and many told us they had taken advantage of the booking being set up for the following year (at the same rate as the 2015 picnic, thank you again Oakley Court) and booked for the 2016 picnic already. We're looking forward to seeing you then.

We headed out back to Kent with the usual sadness we feel on leaving Oakley, but happy to know we would be back again soon.

Thank you to all that attend the picnics each year, 2016 will be the 11th in a row, here's to many more.

(TimeWarpWebmaster)

The 2016 picnic is also now confirmed for Sunday, 28th August 2016 as usual on the August Bank Holiday weekend and the price is held at this year's rate. Most people we have spoken to who were at the 2015 picnic have already booked for next year, so the sooner the better to guarantee your place at the 2016 event.

Galleries of images from the day - images online 605       Queued/Previewed 0 (Thumbnails only at this time)

TWW 218 images		Norman 87 images		Davina 33 images		Rob 12 images		Thunderwing Sue 36 images		Sue and Paul 51 images
Quad 42 images		Richard 32 images						Helen & Mark 51 images		Denise 43 images
If you would like to send us your own images from the day for us to use here please email them to picnicimages2015timewarp.org.uk [type in the in the address as it is a graphic to deter the spammers.] (Unlike most social media sites, you retain the copyright for your images when used on timewarp.org.uk. You just agree by sending them that we may use them here on our sites only. We will not re-publish, sell or give away your images and you can request their deletion at any time in the future.)

For more information about the event, please see the main
Picnic Show page for our frequently asked questions.