Birdwatcher and comedian Bill Oddie was on hand to launch the Essex Festival of the Countryside.
The host of Bill Oddie Goes Wild visited Abberton Reservoir Wildfowl and Visitor Centre to launch the festival, now in its tenth year.
From now until September the festival will bring together more than 250 rural events throughout Essex, and it is hoped it will attract tourists to a number of the small villages where the events will take place.
Country boy: Bill Oddie at the Abberton Reservoir Wildfowl and Visitor Centre to launch the festival. Picture: NIGEL BROWN
Special events will include, family days out with Thomas the Tank Engine at East Anglian Railway Museum, traditional fun and games at the Langham Village Fete, Harwich Sea Festival, a special Nightingale Walk and BBQ at Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve and St Osyth Village Open Gardens.
Colin Finn, deputy to the cabinet member for planning, enterprise and regeneration said: "The festival provides the ideal opportunity to make the most of the English summertime whilst exploring and celebrating the vitality of the Essex countryside.
"There are events for everyone to enjoy from the Easter weekend through till the end of September."
Published Friday, April 11, 2003
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