Review of Last Year's Special Event - The Grand Donkey Day Out 2009
30th/31st August 2009
The Grand Donkey Day Out was an amazing fundraising event enjoyed by thousands of visitors over the bank holiday.
As the event was bigger and better than previous years, the costs of staging the event rose too so it was vital to have a good turnout and the public didnt let us down.
Despite a slow day on Sunday when the weather was against us, the farm was filled with music loving donkey supporters who turned the whole event into a carnival party.
At the end of the day over £3000 was raised for the charity in addition to the £8000 raised with the Grand Summer Raffle which was drawn on Monday.
The show photos tell their own story of two days filled with good music, entertainment and fun. The whole event was captured by a film crew who are going to produce an hour long DVD which will be available to buy in the near future. Not only will the film show the work of the Sanctuary, the donkeys and interviews with key people from the charity, but also the music side of the event as it unfolded to its Grand Finale when Dean as Elvis rocked them in the aisles.
Kelly Burke and Cherryl sang and danced their way through the Donkey Conga when a huge conga line danced its way around the stage and beyond...it was just one long party and the atmosphere was terrific.
Cherryl & Charlie's daughter Holly arrived in style with "Elvis" in a stretch limo to draw the raffle when they were surrounded by press photographers all clicking away to get the best photos. The atmosphere was electric and brought drama to the whole event.
We cant thank everyone enough for all their help in making this event the best ever, from musicians and entertainers, stage and sound engineers, stallholders, car parkers, raffle ticket sellers, caterers, children's entertainers and all the staff who pulled the whole event together. People are already talking about next years show so watch this space!"
We really hope you enjoy our online photo-gallery showing you a reflection of the weekend.
If you have any photos from the weekend, please send them in to
photos@iwdonkey-sanctuary.com and we'll try and feature as many as we can in the photo-gallery.
John Owen from the Isle of Wight Owl & Falconry Centre in action with Prost, a 1-year old Gyrfalcon