Dances With The Daffodils

Olly Mann explains why a specific fete in Thriplow that marks the start of spring is his favourite event

- Olly Mann

I DON'T MEAN to be smug, but I've just attended my favourite event of the year. And, almost certainly, you weren't there because there are only 10,000 tickets available. Indeed, it's an event so good, I hesitated before putting pen to paper today lest you tell your mates, scoop up next year's tickets, and I can't get in.

But, as we all recognise, this column is, first and foremost, a treasured public service. You see my dilemma? Alright: I guess I'll tell you about it, but you'll have to promise not to tell anybody else. Deal?

OK. The event in question is...The Thriplow Daffodil Weekend and Country Fair (you were expecting something "cooler"? A bit younger, a bit more Shoreditch, a bit more drinkingout-of-mason-jars? I'm flattered. But you have me all wrong).

"Thriplow Daffodils" (as it's known by us true aficionados) is, at its heart, a straightforward English fete: cream teas, craft tent, morris dancers, that sort of thing; and it takes over a comely Cambridgeshire village for one weekend each March. The timing is crucial (in 2025, it’ll be March 22 and 23, so mark your calendars now). I’d even go as far as to say the scheduling of the event is the secret of its success.

Here’s why. You know how the British spring technically starts at the beginning of March…but kicks off with that interminable fortnight, offering only tiny glimmers of vitamin D—just enough to dare to believe that maybe the months of bleakness and blandness we’ve endured since Boxing Day might finally be behind us—and then we get ten straight days of sideways rain and freezing wind?