It was mid-June. Montpellier Gardens in Cheltenham. The Food & Drink Festival. The Daffodil Champagne Pavillion to be precise.
And a hot-shot selection of the most influential, interesting, talented, rocking and famous movers and shakers from the Cotswolds gathered together for a cracking evening, sponsored by the brilliant travel company Steppes Travel with champagne from Perrier-Jouet.
The Daffodil Pavillion was the perfect location and we were celebrating the food and drink heroes of the area amidst a tented village of incredible food and drink manufacturers.
With food the theme, local body artist Mona Turnbull created the most eye-catching attraction with her stunning model Verity. The incredible body art was inspired by food and it was a sight to behold and the result of hundreds of snaps and selfies. No one quite knew where to look.
Networking was the order of the day and with guests like Ian Renton, CEO of Cheltenham Racecourse, Julie Finch, CEO of the Cheltenham Trust and Jody Gooding and Jason Smith of Marketing Gloucester, there was a lot to discuss, ideas to be shared and potential collaborations dreamt up.
We had food heroes like Rob Rees, the Cotswold Chef, Henry Herbert from Hobbs House and Rachel Thursfield from Love Bites.
We welcomed Rockers like Paul Amin from Black Moth Vodka, the photographer Andrew Ogilvy and Dany Fremantle from Oasis Events.
The art world were represented by the talented PJ Crook and the irrepressible Ali Russell from New Brewery Arts. And local businesses Crowe Clark Whitehill, Willans Solictors, Bruton Knowles and Hughes Paddison mingled with Tom Arkell from T20 Media and the Cotswold Gentleman. We all have a shared mission to attract the best talent and do business locally and nationally.
Carl Thompson from Street Velodrome came along with a very tight lycra Rock the Cotswolds cycling top and TV presenter Jill Douglas looked liked she’d been colour coordinating with Oli Christie from Neon Play. A vision of blue and white!
One of our new Rockers, photographers McPhersonStevens came and took some photos and filmed the event and all the pics you seen on this blog are from them. So a big thanks to Spencer, Dan and Dale – their quality is always supreme.
The nibbles from the Daffodil were deee-licious and they kept on coming. Lobster, salmon, oysters, salamis and more. We were more spoilt than an ambassador’s reception.
We had a smattering of local celebs and it was great to see Ben Miller, Emma Samms, Dr Dawn Harper, Tristan Gemmill (soon to appear in Coronation Street) and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen come and join the party and help it rock.
Rocker and local magician Alex Robertson blew everybody away with his close-up magic and left everyone wondering how the hell he does it.
Award-winning Belgian chocolatier Matthieu de Gottal very kindly came along and brought some of his own hand-made chocolates. They tickled the tastebuds for sure.
Everybody left with a spring in their step and a seriously lovely goodie bag from Steppes Travel that included a beautiful leather travel holder with Moleskin notebook, plus some groovy chopsticks courtesy of us, Rock the Cotswolds!
Enjoy the video of the VIP fizz fest below or by clicking here.
