The final balcony!

We have now managed to dismantle the last of the balconies that were left over from the nightclub days. This has been a major task one the last few months. Now we have a clear hall for events which allow us to let the hall without any space restriction. 

There it's still a lot of tidying up to do, but we should be able to move the rubble on time and before the next event. 

Gregor  

Sent from my HTC

A Great Weekend!

Overall we had a super weekend this weekend taking around £1,500, of which we should see an increase in Pavilion Funds of around £1,000.
In the Café we raised around £500 of this and thanks must go to Judy, Andie, Trina and Dave for their help.
We also signed up five new members, without really trying!
The view is of a customer just leaving the café having had an enjoyable drink!
Gregor

Successful Craft Market

We have had a successful Craft Market this weekend, helped in no small way by the Fireworks Night in Matlock Bath.
We had 17 stalls altogether, with a range of goods from weathervanes to Christmas decorations. Most did well and sold a good quantity of stock.
For the first time we used our "Street Team"; licenced young teenagers who deliver leaflets to passers-by, reminding them that the market is open. It was clear when they went out because within a few minutes we had a rush of people arriving at the Pavilion entrance! Thanks to Lily, Lily and Annabel who between them did the work.
Gregor

What an Amazing Evening!

Judy organised the Café stall last night and it was incredible!
From 6.30 to 9.15 it never really stopped. We were offering Hot Dogs, Baked Potatoes, Tea, Coffee, Hot Chocolate and a range of soft drinks and doughnuts. We pretty much ran out of everything!
Judy, Jane, Penny, plus Charles (GmacG), Becks and Felix all helped and together raised a turnover of £480, just from this stall! This will give us a good profit towards Pavilion Funds and be added towards the Café takings over the weekend (more later).
During the evening it started to rain and I gave a virtuoso performance of how to NOT put up a gazebo! I had to erect it OVER the tables and then get the roof on; whilst people were still serving our customers underneath! It paid a wonderful reward when the rain rally came. We were able to provide a dry area for our foods our servers and our customers.
A great evening was had by all!
Gregor

Cash Machine Usage

We are down again on usage of the cash machine in the Pavilion. The main summer months had 17,700 withdrawals down from 19,900. This reduces our income by 20%. Still well up on when the council used to gain the income, but not so good as before.
We still need to ensure that everyone who can use the machine goes as often as they can. Even small withdrawals each give us an income.
Gregor

Final Painting Tuesday

Here are Les and Mike painting the radiator at the top of the stairs. Over the late summer and early autumn Les and his team have worked their way up the stairs and started to paint the corridor at the top. A tremendous job has been done and it has made the Grand Pavilion a much more pleasant building to enter.
This was the last Tuesday morning workgroup and thanks should be recorded to Stella and Pam Roddis, Eric Fern, Tony Ball and of course Dave Mowle.
We will be starting the heavy work on Saturday the 9th of November when we start to dismantle the last platform, the one on the right of the Ballroom. This will be an event! Come at 10am to be part of this great project. Come each Saturday that you can, but we will also be working on Sundays from the 10th onwards.
Gregor

Pavilion Cafe Fireworks No 2!

We had another good night at the Matlock Bath Illuminations Fireworks. The weather was awful, but five of us appeared and sold teas, coffees and some food to people wishing to get out of the drizzle.
Here are Penny and Yvonne with a couple of customers, thanks also to Les and Annabel. For most of the evening I was busy persuading people to come and visit our stall.
Gregor

Doug Smith and Roxy Music

Doug Smith gave a wonderful talk to the Friends of the Grand Pavilion. He described his experiences with Island Music, making videos of groups in the early years of this medium. He showed a number of the clips that had not been seen before.
He finished with a video he made as a student, part of which showed Teddy Boys visiting the Grand Pavilion.
Gregor

Canon Ball Run

This is Mike Wild's bike, on which he crossed the USA in the Canon Ball Run. 4000 miles for bikes built before 1924.  

He showed how he modified his motorbike to enable it to perform this task in less than two weeks. 

His modified bike came third, which was quite a feat!

Gregor   

Sent from my HTC

Pavilion Cafe at the Illuminations

The cafe was open tonight for the Illuminations and we had a good evening! We to £363 which was twenty times what we to last Saturday. 

Here are Judy, Penny and Jane who worked until 9.30pm to get the result that we did. Well done all. 

Gregor 

Sent from my HTC

Illuminations Heritage Exhibition

Here is Laura with the Illuminations Heritage Exhibition in the Briddon Room. It is funded by our lottery money and was put together a part of our project. We had over 100 visitors this evening. 

Gregor 

Sent from my HTC