CFZ PEOPLE: Kara Wadham

HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
KARA

KARA WADHAM: BUGFEST BLOG

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KARA WADHAM: The return of the Bugfest Blog

Something has happened to Bugfest. It’s grown considerably. From our New Year's Day count of 15 000 hits on our website, the figure has grown exponentially in the last couple of weeks. We attribute this to a number of factors. Last April Nick made the decision to register Bugfest as a business due to the growing number of birthday party and school talk bookings he was receiving. Although this is never going to make us rich it became substantial enough for the tax man to notice (and he notices everything).

Over the summer Bugfest visited lots of local towns on a play-days road show organised by the local council. There Nick and the bugs met thousands of people, all eager to gaze at a goliath or screw up their nose at a snail. Nick was able to cure long-standing phobias and dispel the myths about our creepy crawly crew. The summer also saw Bugfest putting on a display for the Phasmid Study Group bi-annual meeting at the Natural History Museum in London, which raised Bugfest’s profile and status among the invertebrate fraternity.

With only a few weeks to go until Bugfest 6 we have already secured some top notch names and stands with a bevy of followers promising to attend the day itself. Nick has taken over the organisation this year due to my work commitments and present ill health. The local paper have asked him to write a column promoting Bugs and the Bugfest 6 event on 26th February and we were lucky enough to have a photographer visit the house on probably the day I felt most ill! Luckily he only wanted to take pictures of spiders. An ailing grey lady just wouldn’t do it for anyone!

Bugfest is growing. Keep watching our website to watch the numbers grow and find out about our latest event.

Kara Wadham
BUGFEST

Take a look at our redesigned website
http://www.bugfest.co.uk/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARA

WEIRD WEEKEND SCRAPBOOK: Oll Lewis

Today was a fantastic day. The day started off with meeting Silas Hawkins up at the hall. Poor Silas was meant to be at the Weird Weekend yesterday but was let down by his satnav, which had taken it upon himself (or herself, I have no idea how to tell a satnav’s sex, but I’m sure Max knows so I’ll have to ask him at some point) to send him to the wrong Woolfardiswothy. But as Silas was here now he was able to sign a Family Ness book for me on behalf of his late father, Peter Hawkins, who had voiced the characters in the TV series. The show was what first introduced me to cryptozoology as a child and I have fond memories of running around with my brother pretending that we had Nessie summoning ‘thistle whistles.’ Later in the day I and the CFZ were donated some Eurycantha phasmids by Nick and Kara Wadham of Bugfest SW fame. I absolutely adore this species and they are, as I type this currently sitting in my huge fauna box munching away at moist bramble leaves.

Even more fantastic stuff was to come when Lars announced the results of his analysis of some of the hairs that had been found in the local woods… Back in January you will recall that I posted a cautious blog about some foot prints I investigated in the snow at a local farm. When I returned to the site the next day to take casts I got a better look and upon analysis I postulated to Jon and Richard that I thought they were leopard tracks and have been telling everyone who visited the CFZ since this was what I believed them to be. Lars concluded that some hairs collected in the woods were leopard hairs and he plans to test the hairs for DNA so, short of getting a body, the evidence for a leopard in the Woolsery area doesn’t get better than this.

WEIRD WEEKEND 2010 LATEST NEWS

* We have just heard from Sharon - the Sunday morning fried breakfast will be back and (just to please Jon and disgust his vegetarian wife) there will be black pudding

* Nick and Kara Wadham will be doing the animal handling for the first time. They will have a display of their animals from Yeovil Bugfest. Just in case you thought the name Wadham was familiar, they are the proud parents of Harriet, the CFZ's favourite young journalist.

* Just in case of rain at the cocktail party we have bought a SECOND marquee.

With less than three weeks to go, now might be a good time to buy your tickets to the best crypto-fortean event of the year....

Buy Your Tickets here

GOOD BYE SMEAGLE

Kara Wadham sent us this tribute written by one of her pupils to his pet cat that someone just shot. Would we print it, she asked. Of course we would! It is always a privelige to post tributes to the late pets of bereaved children; it may actually be one of the few things we do that actually does some good in the world.

I had a cat called Smeagle
He was the most friendly cat in the whole world
He liked playing games, chasing cats
But most of all loved his cuddles,
And when I was in the bath
He loved to pop bubbles with me
When he was a kitten he watched the football with me
We will all miss Smeagle
But he will always be in my heart

Jay Gaylard, Buckklers Mead Community School

KARA WADHAM: Bugfest Compy

To win a pair of free tickets for Bugfest in Yeovil on the 20th February all you have to do is correctly identify the type of spider displayed on the front page of the Bugfest website http://www.bugfest.co.uk/.

Email your answer to kara@bugfest.co.uk by Jan 31st 2010 and 3 winners will be chosen at random to receive pair of tickets each.

BUGTASTIC!!
Karaxx

BUGFEST 5: Kara Wadham writes..

This is the new Bugfest poster, if any of you want it! We'd really appreciate it appearing in various publications, windows, local papers and shows.

Please ignore this email if you don't care a fig!
take care
Kara Wadham Event Organiser

BUGFEST 5

SAT 20TH FEB

BUCKLERS MEAD SPORTS CENTRE

YEOVIL

Adults: £2.00
children over 4: £1 (free in fancy dress)Tickets cheaper online.www.bugfest.co.uk

Of course we give a fig my dear.

BUGFEST 6 - Hurrah for Kara

Bugfest is the southwests's premier entomological exhibition, but with a difference - we aim to provide a low cost, educational, informative and fun day out for all ages and interests. Have a look at our website if you have not previously attended as we regularly attract about 700 visitors - a magnificent achievement.

The event works best when there are a variety of stalls as we want to capture the interest and imagination of a variety of people.

The event draws visitors in from all over the country and is becoming more and more popular and this is only our third year!

Book quickly! Our trestle tables have already been booked up but we are still able to offer the opportunity for you to hire smaller tables or bring your own at a reduced cost.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kara Wadham(Event organiser)

N. B. We forbid the selling of reptiles in any form, but if properly housed and cared for, they may be exhibited.

BUGFEST 5
SAT 20TH FEB
BUCKLERS MEAD SPORTS CENTRE
Adults £2.00 and children over 4 £1 (free in fancy dress)
Tickets cheaper online.
www.bugfest.co.uk

HARRIET WADHAM AT THE WEIRD WEEKEND

In August Jon Downes hosted The Weird Weekend 2009, where people from all over the world gathered for a weekend of weirdness, packed full of lectures on Atlantis, Big Grey Men of Ben Macdhui, and many other interesting subjects.

Now me being ten years of age, I attended the ‘Bigfoot for kids’ lecture, which was held by Paul Vella. It gave me an inspiration to write a book about Bigfoot when I’m older. But then again, I have got about a billion stories running at the moment (at the same time!!), so it might have to wait for quite a while.

The whole lecture was really very interesting; we were granted permission to handle Bigfoot footprints and Paul showed us a famous film of Bigfoot that two men called Roger Patterson and Gimlin captured while on a hunt for one. Patterson and Gimlin were on horseback when they spotted the creature, but Patterson’s horse got a bit frightened and backed away. Patterson hopped off his horse, and began to film Bigfoot. Bigfoot started to get further away, so as we didn’t have zoom lenses on cameras in those days, he had to run after it, which made the film very shaky. Now if it had been a person in a gorilla costume – which is highly improbable - it would have had to be "A very good gorilla costume, because if you look closely, you can see that there are calf muscles on the legs."

Personally, the part of the lecture I enjoyed the most is the part I’ve just gone on about - The Bigfoot film. I was intrigued by the film to do a talk about Bigfoot at the next Bugfest that my parents organise. I hope that I can, anyway. Here is frame 352 from the film of Bigfoot.

In fact, I would definitely go back to the Weird Weekend next year; then again, Mum is already thinking about going back, so I’m guessing I’ve got to! But that’s a good thing, because I enjoyed it IMMENSELY!! I even had my first taste of... CHEESY CHIPS!! They were absolutely scrumdiddlyumptious (As the B.F.G would say)! You can see my monster book in the bottom right corner, behind the flowers. You’ll read about it in a second.

All the lectures were interesting and jam-packed full of information, with lots of slideshows to go with them.

The highlight of my whole weekend was probably meeting an author (Neil Arnold) and getting a book signed (MONSTER! The A-Z of Zooform Phenomena). Then Mum told me that I’d met lots of authors already, but without knowing it! Of course that had made my day, getting a book signed and meeting lots of authors - even though it was obliviously - but I was also happy that I had made new friends, and had so much fun at the Weird Weekend 2009.

BUGFEST: BLOODY BUSY

KARA WADHAM WRITES: For those of you intending to book a table on the 8th August event, please do so quickly.

We have almost run out of space and it is going to be busy. We have had well over 1000 hits on the website in the last couple of weeks and the publicity campaign has only just started!

I hope you will be able to support us. Whether you are a trader or individual, we will welcome you.

Kara


BUGFEST 4
SAT 8TH AUGUST
BUCKLERS MEAD SPORTS CENTRE
www.bugfest.co.uk

BUGFEST IS BACK

The creepy crawlies are back in Yeovil for the fourth Bugfest on August 8th at Bucklers Mead Sports Centre. The event is proving so popular that organisers have scheduled this additional summer date. As well as spiders, live food and all sorts of bugs to buy, see and learn about, there will be other stalls offering face painting, crafts and much more. Admission prices are a credit busting £2 for adults and £1 for children (5-16). To save money, children in fancy dress go FREE! Don't miss it!

Bugfest is an entomological (creepy crawly) exhibition held at Bucklers Mead Sports Centre, Yeovil, where traders from across the country exhibit, sell and offer advice on invertebrates from crabs to stick insects. There are also lots of other stalls including those selling books, crafts, insect housing and children's craft stalls. There is also a children's 'spot the bug' quiz with small prizes to be won!

Smaller workshops are regularly held during school holidays, which are primarily aimed at children who can come and meet Nick and his collection of bugs, ask questions and handle insects. Nick also visits schools and groups to talk about his ever growing collection of creatures.

Bugfest consists of a husband and wife team, Nick and Kara Wadham, ably assisted by family, friends and volunteers, who decided to bring the creepy crawly world to Somerset. The popularity of the first event was a complete surprise as 1000 visitors attended. Now Bugfest is going from strength to strength, drawing notoriety and attention to the South West!