After several periods of beautiful weather, one could hardly expect anything but good weather for this year's festival. However, a few heavy rains had crept into the weather forecasts in recent weeks, so the steering committee was not completely calm about the 28th Bangsbo Flower Festival. Due to the public holiday – Ascension Day in the middle of the week leading up to the Festival – work on setting up the approximately 100 pavilions started on Tuesday and Wednesday. It went according to plan, and most of it was ready and set up by the evening of the Wednesday before the public holiday. Strong winds from the west meant that some pavilions had to be straightened during the Friday, but of course that was also done.
Again this year, Michael Tibbs was in place in a large tent with lots of orchids. Michael Tibbs is one of the world's leading orchid experts. With him to the Flower Festival in Frederikshavn, Michael Tibbs had a large selection of orchids, large and small in eye-catching colors. Some new and completely unknown ones were also part of the assortment, which attracted a lot of attention. And it is no secret that Michael Tibbs attracts a lot of visitors who spend a lot of money in the tent, which Michael Tibbs expresses great satisfaction with.
Another of the Festival's attractions was an exhibition of potted roses from rose breeder Rosa Eskelund, and Anne Keller from FloraFlora in Elling had created a really beautiful and inviting exhibition - if you wanted to buy the roses, they could be purchased at the Friends' Plant Sale.
As a third attraction, there was a working painting exhibition with our local TrineMatea Kostending. She had previously painted pictures that could be enjoyed – and perhaps purchased – in the Haven's engine house. Furthermore, Trine sat and worked on motifs from the local area, where the sea in particular plays a big role.
And then it was just a matter of exploring all the other exhibitors, whose repertoire ranged from plant sales - sales of garden-related things and of course food and drink. While enjoying the culinary delights, you could enjoy the musical entertainment from the stage pavilions. The rubber boot competition was also held with Anders Krøgh from Spar Nord as the overwhelming winner.
In general, it can be said that there was a huge influx of visitors during Saturday – probably partly caused by the weather forecast promising both cloudbursts, thunder and hail on Sunday. Sunday also started quietly, but since the storm did not appear, there was again a good number of visitors, and the first reports of visitors are the same number as last year – around 5,000, so the steering committee is very pleased with that and thanks for the attendance.
We didn't escape a bit of bad weather – at around 2:15 p.m. the rain started, and there were also a few thunderclaps. This meant that the festival ended a little earlier than planned, and that the atmospheric closing ceremony was dropped. Some materials were taken indoors, while the pavilions will only be taken down on Monday afternoon, when they have dried.
Thank you for this year – and see you again in 2026 – on June 6th and June 7th.
