Whitehaven’s photo finish

The winning Spirit of Whitehaven picture taken by Bill Robertson

Whitehaven received much bad publicity at the time of the shootings on June 2 so to counter that, a competition has been held to photograph the true spirit of Whitehaven.
Brooks, a TV and electrical shop that sits opposite the taxi rank where Darren Rewcastle was shot, put up a 42in Panasonic TV as first prize and I helped in the judging.

People attending Whitehaven’s food and music festival, held in July, were invited to submit photos from the festival and there was a fantastic range of pictures. The festival attracts tens of thousands of people from all over the world. It’s easily the biggest event in West Cumbria and yet it’s not organised by any council or government quango – it’s run entirely by volunteers.

The winning picture was taken by Bill Robertson, a retired chartered engineer, who took a picture in of the crowds gathering around the harbour for the evening fireworks. Despite the low light he’d managed to keep everything pin-sharp. As he himself told me, he hoped the picture of a town where there was plenty happening and people were all out enjoying themselves truly captured the spirit of the town.

There’s more excitement in Whitehaven this weekend (August 14 and 15) when the cruise ship, The World, drops in. It’s a bit of journalistic licence to say it ‘docks’ at Whitehaven because our harbour isn’t big enough for this ‘floating country’. The ship is however, parking just outside and the crew and passengers will be ferried into town. Cumbria Tourism have been busy promoting the county with the cruise companies and this is hopefully the first of many such visits from liners.

There are a number of events being lined up for the visitors around the harbour, some heritage trails and displays from artists involved in the Made In Cumbria scheme. Everyone’s heard of Whitehaven for the wrong reasons – now we can hopefully ensure they remember the town for the right reasons.

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  The Power of Volunteers; well done Whitehaven.