We held our third annual gala event at Portsmouth Guildhall on Friday, January 25th 2019.
This time we had a variety of activities planned and some excellent guest performers all of whom donated their time generously to help promote twinning in Portsmouth with Caen and Duisburg.
The Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Councillor Lee Mason opened the event. He had spent much of his day with me and a couple of other committee members, preparing the excellent and sumptuous finger buffet we provided to all of our guests.
I then spoke about what has happened in twinning over the last year and a half. There has been much more happening recently and there is set to be much more happening in the future. It would, of course, be far more interesting if more people in this city felt they wanted to be involved, even if only in a very small way. Do get involved... join us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter
We had a quiz round and then a wonderful piece of entertainment from the very talented Fine Voice Academy and their leader Simon Long. The Fine Voice Academy is based in St Cuthbert's and St Aidan's Church Community Centre in Copnor. They gave a very professional performance, we were overwhelmed by their highly talented singing.
A video of the Fine Voice Academy Choir, with the children also performing in British Sign Language can be found here.
A further video of them performing a rousing song can be found here.
Some food from our buffet, answers to the first quiz and the further quiz round two on the theme of twins were followed by wonderful renditions from the very talented Miss Becki Short who gave us a variety of songs from her vast repertoire of songs from yesteryear. An absolute star.
You can see an excerpt of Becki performing 'I only have eyes for you' here.
You can see a further excerpt of Becki performing 'I only have eyes for you' here.
We had been selling boxes and raffle tickets galore and guests gave generously.
Our raffle and boxed prizes had been generously donated by the members of their committee and their family and friends.
We were also generously supported by some of Portsmouth's finest businesses and people:
Brittany Ferries had donated a prize of a return trip for a car and up to four people including cabins on the Portsmouth-Caen route worth a tidy sum at any point in the year, but a lot in the summer season.
The Spinnaker Tower had donated two adult entry tickets for the Tower and two cream tea vouchers for the café at the foot of the tower.
The Queens Hotel had donated a Tea for two voucher
Local Author Richard Milton had donated a copy of one of his books, which he dedicated to the winner.
Many thanks to Victoria Campbell and the Guildhall Team for their invaluable help in providing the bar and setting up the Lord Mayor's Banqueting Suite for us so professionally.
Many thanks to the staff of the Lord Mayor's Office for their invaluable help in organising the event too.
We hope to see you at one of our events soon. We keep a calendar of what we are doing on this very blog. An easy to find link is tinyurl.com/caenduisevents
All photographs and videos were taken by me on my smartphone. The lighting in the Guildhall's banqueting Suite is rather low 'mood' lighting as it is really intended to be a hall for banqueting. Some of the images are therefore not all that bright and clear.