Cambusbarron Gala Day

Kids and adults have so many happy memories from our annual village gala day that we really do not want to see it disappear - but this year fundraising has been difficult and gala funds are low. The Gala Committee are now asking the residents of Cambusbarron and beyond to support them in their fundraising efforts so they can hold this years event. 

Your financial support is required to enable them to provide just the basic and mandatory requirements to hold this event such as public licenses, hall hire, pipe band, costumes, flowers, rosettes, kilt hire; all necessary items to hold and to make and enhance the experience the children keep as memories forever.

For more information visit www.cambusbarronvillage.com/gala

£2000.00 is the minimum required to hold this years Gala Day and the above donation total is online donations only - please support other events held in aid of fundraising. 

Please note: This page has been set up and is administered by Scott McLean who is a resident of Cambusbarron. The page is operated on behalf of the Gala Committee and Donations received are automatically sent to the Cambusbarron Gala Committee Treasurer  - please contact us if you require further information.

Cambusbarron Gala: was revived most recently in 2007 on a glorious June day enjoyed by hundreds of locals "“ the result of a huge amount of work throughout the winter and spring by a very small group of organisers. It was ever thus, which explains why there have been gaps in its appearance since the first in the village in 1938, on the flat area of the sloping field now occupied by Wallace Place and the eastern houses on Underwood Cottages. This was an initiative by the local Burns Club, and particularly its secretary, William Miller, who had engaged Camelon Pipe Band to provide music. 

The Gala's next "˜official' appearance was in 1950. (There had been versions of it to celebrate the end of the War in both 1945 and 1946, and these had been so enjoyed that it was thereafter to be an annual event. However, the village Social Services Committee, an otherwise forward-looking body, decreed in 1947 the "˜the time was not yet ready.')   The 1951 event was the subject of an attempted gate-crash "“ easily foiled by their lack of fancy-dress "“ by youngsters from outwith Cambusbarron, after the bags of edible goodies allocated to children. 

The Gala of 1952 saw what its committee described as "˜an innovation': the first Gala Queen, Ann Niven; next year it was Molly Neil (later, Waddell), then Margaret Johnstone, and, in 1955, Morag MacCrae. A year later, a strange decision: there would be no Gala Queen. The royal vestments, passed down from one queen to the next, were sold. Such apparent republicanism garnered meteorological disapproval when a burst of heavy rain washed out that year's event, and indeed, seemed to put a damper on the years that followed: the 1960s saw no Gala Day in Cambusbarron. Not until 1970, and the driving force of Betty Beattie, was the Gala revived under the title of "˜Cambusbarron Sports Day'.   

In the 1990s the Gala Queens were crowned by the Guest of Honour "“ someone weel-kent with Cambusbarron connections: thus Kirsty Young, Nicky Docherty and Ann Lorne Gillies officiated.

 

Those, mostly women, who over the years have worked to produce Cambusbarron's enviable Gala Days, are too numerous to list here. That work might have been evident on the day itself, but what wasn't was the immense behind-the-scenes effort that began almost as soon as the previous Gala Day ended. 

But while the usually small band of workers have always been prepared to make that effort in fund-raising events through the winter and spring months, the lack of response from those who get the most from Galas "“ families with young children "“ has in recent years so deflated committee members that the future of such a good village day is in serious jeopardy.

 

(Long before the 1938 Gala, annual Fairs had been held on the Free Green.)

In the event the Gala Committee does not raise enough money to hold this years event, then donations will go into the funds for the 2014 Gala.