Oakley Court Hotel, Sunday 28th August, 2016 | |
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"From what had gone before this was certain to be..........A Picnic." Tuesday, August 29th, 2017
Well, once more The Rocky Horror Picnic Show at Oakley Court was great fun. Setting off on the Sunday morning for the Picnic is always one of my favourite times, replacing Christmas eve from my childhood in the an-ti-ci-pation stakes. Weather wise it was one of those years when the sun and clouds were fighting it out, with heavy showers followed by beautiful sunshine on the drive up to the hotel. Driving into the hotel we were greeted by the familiar sight of our 'Transylvania' flag fluttering in the breeze. We love the way the hotel allows us to fly it for the weekend, it is really appreciated. We checked in and while Stephanie and the boys got into their costumes I headed down to see the early arrivals and meet up with those that had also stayed the Saturday night. There's a lot to be said for wearing a Narrator jacket as a costume, it only takes about a minute to get changed for one. As always it was lovely to both catch up with old friends as well as to chat to picnic show 'virgins' in such a relaxed atmosphere. Once more it was a truly international event, with people from France, Germany and the USA joining us for the day. Drinks on the terrace were very welcome, as were the huge sun shades which acted nicely as umbrellas for the occasional brief shower. The weather just didn't seem to want to make up it's mind, so the hotel arranged for the picnic itself to take place indoors, something we have done in the past but always a fun thing to do. As it turned out there were no more showers at all for the rest of the event, but better safe than soaked. After the fabulous food we all headed back out onto the lawns for the traditional group shot and thanks to a tripod and radio remote I even got to be in the shots this year. As always the picnic is fairly unstructured, to allow people to explore, wear their costumes and mingle with friends old and new. We spent a lovely few hours just chatting to people that share our love of Rocky. The time flew by and pretty soon it was time for a little movie screening. Every year but one we have been fortunate enough to have been able to screen The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the hotel itself. Even after seeing this happen nine times previously it still gave me goosebumps to see 'The Castle' on screen while being inside the building that is appearing on the screen (my head hurts). One of my favourite parts is also to jump up and take a shot of the audience in time with the photographer at the wedding saying "and click". A special mention for Carol and her 'Zombie Janet' costume, brilliant. Of course everyone looked fabulous as well, check out the galleries to see what I mean. After a final Time Warp we headed out again for some late night drinks in the bar and I took the opportunity to grab a few night shots of the building as well. We left the die hard picnickers at around one thirty in the morning to get some sleep after another wonderful day at Oakley Court. I mentioned to Steph that the day had flown by, but after a nights sleep it didn't seem quite as quick as I thought. I love the breakfast the day after, half the fun is seeing who you can recognise when they are not dolled up to the nines in their costumes, the other half is the food itself. I don't think I've ever needed to eat lunch after an Oakley Court breakfast! Check out is at 11am, so we did a quick meet up with some of the other attendees on the lawns. The regular 'Fountain Foto'sic seemed to have more people than previous years, but was still fun to do of course. We said our goodbyes and many hugs later loaded the car and set off for home with both our boys falling asleep within the first ten miles of the journey. The hotel commented how much they loved us being there and we have to say how wonderful all the Oakley Court staff are. Many attendees took to social media and email to say how much they had enjoyed the day. Booking for the 2017 picnic opened the day we checked out and by the end of the week seventy four people had signed up for the following years picnic. Considering there were around eighty at the 2016 event, that is rather impressive. A huge thank you to Oakley Court for holding the rate for the event once more. We have loads of images from the day further down the page, do have a look though to see what we got up to in 2016. TimeWarpWebmaster Friday, September 2nd, 2016 Galleries of images from the day - images online 393 Queued/Previewed 0 (Thumbnails only at this time)
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