The 2009 Heacham Flower Festival has got to be by far the best and most original that I have ever seen.  It was a privilege to visit St Mary's Church and behold the hours of work that must have gone into each display.  The idea for this year's Festival came from a similar display at Sculthorpe Church and the team of organisers responsible for this incredible event should give themselves a huge pat on the back for the results were truly stunning.  Recycling Week is held 22-28 June 2009 so Heacham's Flower Festival started the ball rolling at drawing attention to the environment and showed just how resourceful and creative you can be with recycling.

Steve Davies, Vicar of St Mary's, was rightly proud of the high standard of the displays but was even more delighted that the recycling concept brought contributions and involvement from all parts of the community including the local schools and Men's Groups.  Steve felt that this was an important achievement and highly topical as the environment and saving money were currently key issues for everyone.  Steve is also keen to communicate the spiritual message through the recycling concept.  In the Festival Programme he states that: "God is not into throwing away and discarding; he wants to remake each one of us and sees beauty in each one of us".  Well if what was on show here is anything to go by then Steve is 100% right and we should all go back to basics and find real value and appreciation in simple things.

The colourful displays around the church are the work of numerous people, many of whom would not consider themselves as flower arrangers in the traditional sense but each, in their way, have conveyed something meaningful and thought provoking.  Heacham Flower Club were also among those who spent many hours creating these works of art.

The weekend programme included a variety of live background music from Lesley, Jacky, Heather, David and Kath (Recorder Trios), John Harris (Piano) and Adrian Flower (Organ).  Refreshments and stalls were available to complement the weekend programme.  There was also an evening concert by The West Norfolk Jubilee Youth Orchestra.

We look forward to something as wonderful and interesting next year.  Well done everyone.