Daffodil weekend expected to draw in 12,000 people

More than 12,000 people were expected to visit a village's 57th annual flower festival on Saturday and Sunday.

Yellow, orange and white flowers will be on display during the Thriplow Daffodil Weekend in Cambridgeshire, and the event will be run by more than 400 volunteers.

Paul Earnshaw, the chairman of the weekend, said: "If you think we only have 350 people in the village, so people pull in their mums, their uncles, and everyone like that to work the weekend."

Here is everything you need to know about the event.

The daffodil weekend bloomed in 1966 when the village's church needed major roof repairs.

"They were on top of the church roof and looked around and saw lots of daffodils, and themed the fundraising around the daffodils," Earnshaw said.

People living in the village opened their gardens to the public and made visitors cups of tea which raised £206 to put towards the repairs.

Since then, the event has grown into a full weekend village fete, with coachloads of people from across the country visiting for the event.

Ahead of this year's festivities, Earnshaw said the first daffodil flowered on Christmas Day, with the last expected to be seen in about June.

"It is Britain at its best," he said.

Organisers said there would be more than 100 stalls across Saturday and Sunday.

Kerstin Rivett, one of the event's organisers, said the weekend was "quite unique and special for the community".

She said people could experience craft stalls, food, live music, petting farms, live history re-enactments, and even a working blacksmith.

"We have a smithy and it is absolutely beautiful, and every daffodil weekend it gets lit up," Rivett said.

"It is lovely to see it in use and to keep it going."

The event is ticketed for both days and people are able to buy them on the weekend's website.

"It is important that everybody's hard work pays off with good ticket sales so we can raise lots of money for charity," Rivett added.

People were advised to park at either Church Street or Farm Lane, with a separate section for coaches.

You can also see what the weather will be like in Thriplow here.

Thousands of visitors will, for the first time, be able to find their way around with the help of a giant Lego map.

Earnshaw decided to combine his love of Lego and daffodils to create the map for the popular event.

He previously told the BBC: "I used about 10,000 bricks to build the levels up so the church sits on a little hill... Then I am using the daffodil planting guides to get the flowers in the right places and pictures of key buildings in the village."

Organisers have already announced that it would be holding its next weekend event on 21 and 22 March 2027.

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