Discovering Boomerang Hickstead on Day One
The All England Jumping Course, Hickstead, was the dream and brain child of one man, Douglas Bunn. Now run by his family, the showground remains one of the premier equestrian venues in the world.
Almost every great show jumper, horse and rider, has competed at Hickstead since it first opened the doors in 1960. And one great combination, Boomerang and Eddie Macken, won four consecutive Hickstead Derbies from 1976 to 1979.
As Hickstead heads towards its 60th anniversary year in 2020, the showground continues to diversify and thrive - and yesterday we were honoured to be invited to the first day of Boomerang Hickstead, a brand new two-day music festival. This event will introduce the All England Jumping Course to a whole new audience, and will allow the Bunn family to continue to improve Hickstead's facilities and invest in equestrian sport.
Named in honour of the famous Boomerang and with the suggestion that, like its namesake, the new event and its visitors will successfully return for many years to come, we can confidently say that this is a great move for the Hickstead showground.
This new event was as well organised as any showjumping fixture that we have previously attended - and the crowd signing along to The Proclaimers were certainly out for an evening of family fun, in the warm up to Simple Minds taking to the stage to close the day.
With the September sun turning up the heat in the day Boomerang bloomed in a late summer glow and saw a respectable amount of first time visitors through the gates for its opening day.
Fresh local food stalls were carefully selected to be on hand, to keep hunger at bay and satisfy the need for some freshly cooked hot food options, as well as cold snacks, cakes, crepes and a few beers to wash it all down.
Today's (Sunday 13th) headline acts include Jessie J and The Vamps, supported by Soul II Soul, Rae Morris and Natahn Ball. Today's cooler weather is still holding dry as we head back down to West Sussex for Day Two of this first-ever Boomerang event at Hickstead.
If yesterday's first impressions are anything to go by, we are in for a great evening!