Do you love jigsaw puzzles? Or are you looking for a fun day out with the family? Then look no further than the Great Torrington Jigsaw Puzzle festival! In today’s blog, I wanted to tell you all about The Great Torrington Jigsaw Puzzle Festival, so I sat down with its organiser Debbie, who told me all about this wonderful new event.
So, Debbie, is this the first Great Torrington Jigsaw Puzzle Festival?
Yes, this is the first Festival and if it's a success we do hope there will be more of them. As they take so long to organise, we would plan on them being every 2 years so that we can have a short break between them. The planning started in September of 2021 and so it's a year in the making for the festival. A lot of puzzlers tend to make puzzles in the winter months only, so we had to make sure that we captured those people whilst we could.
What inspired you to start the festival?
My late husband Robert and I enjoyed puzzling and so we raised some money during lockdown by selling puzzles that we had made up. We then put some requests on Facebook asking for donations of puzzles that we could sell. We had a great response and an army of volunteers collected, delivered, and checked the puzzles, so that we could sell them, raising just over £2000. We then decided that we would like to continue raising money for the hospice and investigated organising a Jigsaw Festival. I had some great advice from the 'Ramsbottom Jigsaw Festival' Organisers. After some lengthy communication, knowing it was going to be time-consuming and a lot of work, we decided to go ahead with it anyway.
When is the festival taking place?
It's on 19th & 20th August 2022 between 10 and 4 on both days.
Where is the festival taking place?
It's at the Torridge Vale Social Club, South Street, Great Torrington, Devon EX38 8AB - almost opposite Sydney House, South Street car park.
And what will be happening at the festival?
We have over 700 made up jigsaw puzzles and we should be able to display around 80 at a time. These have been donated and made up by volunteers, especially for the festival. We have almost 200 brand new jigsaws for sale, including Gibsons & Wentworth who have also kindly donated new puzzles to us, which includes some lovely 3D puzzles. All Jigsaw Puzzles have made a large donation of new puzzles and items for us to raffle and sell.
We have a large raffle including some signed jigsaw puzzles by Trevor Mitchell, framed jigsaws up for a silent auction, plus a 5000-piece jigsaw that has been donated and it's stuck on card so it could be framed or just hung as it is. It would be fab for a feature wall either in an office, cafe, bar, restaurant, or just on your dining room wall.
We also have a cafe which is sponsored in kind by The Puffing Billy, tables where people can sit and complete some puzzles that have been partly made up, a very difficult 9-piece puzzle that none of us have managed to work out yet - we are hoping someone will manage it during the event! If they do, they will win a new Jigsaw puzzle. We will also have a ‘guess how many puzzle pieces are in the jar’ and a children's quiz. There is also the social club bar open during Saturday afternoon which you are welcome to use.
It's important to note that this is a cash-only event, as is the whole venue.
That all sounds amazing, I hope it does fantastically and raises a huge amount of money for the Hospice. Finally, what’s your favourite type of jigsaw puzzle?
That's difficult, I love a brightly coloured jigsaw with a lot going on and I also like to rub my hands across it once I've finished it. If you like jigsaws, you'll know what I mean. Robert's favourite was WASGIJ. I certainly don't have the right type of brain for those, I just wouldn't know where to begin.
It was wonderful talking to Debbie and we wish her and all the volunteers the best for the festival. For more information about this fantastic event, email torrjigfest@gmail.com, call 01805 624704 (9.30am-4pm Mon-Fri), or search Great Torrington Jigsaw Festival on Facebook.