Luckily the weather for our “Big Weekend” day was good (the rain saved it’s appearances for the Saturday & Monday either side of our day!). We arrived early to set up only to find some very keen people already waiting. By the advertised start time of 12 o’clock, we had a queue out of our Gazebo, and this queue never seemed to let up!

We had a total of 96 people turn up to try their hands at archery. This covered little ‘uns (using simple apache bows and a target at about 8 yards) through a wide range of adults and juniors of varying ages. We set up some cyclopes bows (as they are ambidextrous thereby making our lives a bit easier on taster sessions) and targets at 10 and 15 yards, including some balloons and some dartboard faces.

People were keen enough to have a go and shoot a couple of ends, then go back to to join the queue to repeat the experience! We even saw people setting up to have their picnics – which rubbed it in to us, as we didn’t get to touch ours until about 4pm when it started to die down a little. Most people shot at least a dozen arrows (with minimal bruising to the arms!)

By the time we’d got home, we’d already had the first email confirming interest in lessons & membership, and more emails are starting to trickle in. We’re scheduling two batches of lessons, and will be emailing everyone who expressed an interest, so hopefully this interest will turn into new archers soon!

Overall, I would have to say this was a massive success. Previous taster sessions have attracted up to around 20 people, so the advertising as part of the Big Weekend & Join In definitley worked (I also got our day included on the BBCs Things to Do site).

People seemed to have been inspired by the Olympics, seeing the adverts, and, in the case of the teenage girls, The Hunger Games movie!