Events

Sunday 25th June 2017

Mansfield Armed Forces Day

A celebration event to give and thanks to all the Armed Forces within the Mansfield area, but to also raise awareness of the different groups and show support for them, whilst encouraging interaction between all ages and communities.  The event is to be fun to encourage a party atmosphere but also showcasing the battles fought over the many years and demonstrating what support is available to ex-service personnel within our community.

The overall theme of our event is a thanks and celebration party, with an element of education and interaction.  Throughout the day members of the public will be invited to join our British summer time tea and cake street party to celebrate all the heroes who have fought in conflicts over the many decades. We will dress the town Market place in a traditional British summer time street party with long tables, bunting and Armed Forces Day flags. All party goers will receive a free tea/coffee and cupcake (with the Armed Forces Day flag on), in return for a voucher which will be available for download from the town centre website.

To provide background entertainment, we will have an outdoor pianist playing all the favourite British war time songs from the decades, and a themed singer to join-in.

This will set the party and celebration atmosphere, however the event will be much more. Due to previous events we have run, we have many contacts for the various Armed Forces groups and Cadets.  We are also working closely with the new Allied Forces Support Service store that has opened in the town centre. All of these groups will have a market stall in the market place showcasing their service and various wartime paraphernalia. For example the local Army store will use the opportunity to encourage enrolment; the Allied Forces store will use the opportunity to showcase what support is on offer for ex-Forces personnel and the Cadets will demonstrate how the younger generation can get involved.

We will also have groups who will bring old war time paraphernalia to show.  We will use an event company to bring armed forces themed children’s events such as bomb detection and assault courses, along with replica Army vehicles

We will also be making a ‘Thank-you’ story board. As part of an existing ‘I Love Mansfield’ project we run, we have a giant ‘heart’ board and often ask people to complete heart-shaped Post-it notes stating why they love Mansfield. Now we will be asking people to leave notes of thanks and support to all Armed Forces personnel. These will be read out live throughout the day on the local radio station and the following week, some will be selected to be printed in our local news paper.