Chelsea Flower Show: ‘Summer Holiday’ wins Silver Gilt

The theme of Summer Holiday was specifically chosen to highlight the huge importance of tourism to the economy and lifestyle of Barbados.

LONDON, England, Tuesday May 22, 2012 - While Barbados was still sleeping in the early hours of Tuesday morning, at around 7:00 am London time, the judges at the world renowned and highly prestigious Chelsea Flower Show placed a Silver Gilt Medal Winners Certificate on the ‘Summer Holiday’ display of the Barbados Horticultural Society. This latest result means that Barbados has now won an impressive 15 Gold, 9 Silver-Gilt and 1 Silver in a highly commendable 25 consecutive years at the Chelsea Flower Show.

While some members of the team may be disappointed that the coveted Gold Medal has eluded their grasp this year, it is worthy of note that many entrants to this demanding competition find it impossible to win any kind of medal at all. So this Silver Gilt, just slightly less than a Gold, is in fact still a very impressive achievement for this group of hard working Barbadian volunteers. In the spirit of true champions, the BHS team is already examining what went wrong and planning ahead to get back to Gold Medal winning standards in 2013.

"The beautiful and striking ‘Summer Holiday’ display has generated tremendous interest"The theme of Summer Holiday was specifically chosen to highlight the huge importance of tourism to the economy and lifestyle of Barbados, as well as to portray how the amazing beauty of our natural environment is an integral factor in making our island such an attractive place to live or visit. With that goal in mind, the BHS, supported by the BTA and Virgin Atlantic, has undoubtedly done an outstanding job of promoting Barbados to a massive British and international audience.

The beautiful and striking ‘Summer Holiday’ display has generated tremendous interest and inspired numerous compliments from the many thousands of people who have visited the stand so far. This was particularly evident during Monday’s special Celebrity and Media Day, when Barbados featured prominently in the UK publicity spotlight. Guest Celebrity Sir Cliff Richard, a long term home owner and friend of the country, charmed and entertained a steady stream of representatives of the press and media for over two hours, as Barbados ‘Summer Holiday’ became a buzz word for the BBC, ITV, Channel Seven TV from Australia, Germany’s ZDF TV, various UK regional radio stations, newspapers, magazines and a host of society photographers. The media frenzy around the Barbados stand attracted other high profile Guest Celebrities, including several stars of film, music and TV.

By the end of Monday night, Barbados and Sir Cliff had already been featured on the BBC News at 1:00 pm and 6:00 pm, as well as a spotlight on Alan Titchmarsh’s Chelsea Flower Show BBC special at 7:30 pm, with an estimated TV audience of 2.2 million viewers. At the time of writing, Barbados is scheduled to be featured on ITV television on Tuesday at 6:30 pm. Other good exposure has been achieved via internet coverage on major sites such as the Daily Express Online, almost certainly along with others still to be discovered.

The BHS team has performed extremely well to win a Silver Gilt Medal and successfully put the Chelsea Flower Show into a Barbados ‘Summer Holiday’ frame of mind.

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