Homecoming Highs for Helensburgh and Lomond

Helensburgh and Lomond’s Homecoming 2009 celebrations include some cracking events. They’re run by the Friends of Victorial Hall (FOVH, now a registered Scottish charity) and held in this much loved Helensburgh Hall.

These are all in the Events Calendar and we’ll remind you of them nearer their dates but for some – like the Helensburgh Homecoming Ball and the Food Fair, you’ll need to act soon to buy tickets or book a space.

• The JLB Sandwich

This is an inspired idea with a snappy title that grabs the imagination. Yes, its designed to replace the BLT but forget trying to work out the contents. It’s not Jam / Lettuce / Brie. It’s John Logie Baird, Helensburgh’s famous son and inventor of television.

You submit your recipe for a JLB sandwich. Entries will be judged by a panel of local ‘experts’ who have given up dieting for the duration. Five finalists will be shortlisted.

Then – on 30th May – the Head Chef of Helensburgh’s Logie Baird Pub will supervise the preparation of the competing JLB sandwiches. These will be put to the taste by a panel of judges chose by the event sponsors, Your Radio – and Your Radio will have and share the fun by providing live transmission of the chew out.

The winning JLB sandwich will go on the menu at the Logie Baird pub and its inventor will receive a commemorative trophy.

• The Helensburgh and Lomond Homecoming Ball

Designed to be a precursor to the resurrection of the famous Helensburgh Charity Ball of thirty years ago, this gala event – on Saturday the 30th May in the Victoria Hall – will feature Scotland’s ‘King of Swing’, Harry Margolis and his Glenn Miller style swing band.

This is planned as an elegant, black tie occasion with good cuisine and a chance for Homecoming Friends to remember the Helensburgh evenings of yesteryear.

Tickets for this stylish event  are selling well so contact organiser Tony Dance (tony.dance@viton.org.uk) quickly if you want tickets or a table.

• The Franco Scottish Week

Around seventy official visitors -  as well as lot more coming home for the event – will be in Helenburgh for this week. It’s programme of events is run in partnership with the Helensburgh / Thouars Twinning Association.

Between 27th July and 1st August a group of about 100 guests and hosts will visit Mount Stuart on Bute, probably on Thursday 30th July. The week will culminate with a Civic Reception – in the evening of 31st July – in the Victoria Hall, supported by FOVH and hosted jointly by Councillor William Petrie, Provost of Argyll and Bute Council and by Councillor Vivien Dance, Chair of the Friends of Victoria Hall.

FOVH are in negotiations with a local hotel to provide a buffet meal for this reception, created entirely from food and beverages produced in Argyll and Bute. This meal will be prepared and presented by their Head Chef in the Victoria Hall.

• The Argyll and Bute Food and Craft Fair

The programme for Helensburgh’s Franco Scottish Week is planned to include a Food and Craft Fair – on Friday the 31st July – restricted to food, drink and crafts produced or processed in Argyll and Bute. If the number of exhibitors and the level of interest suggests that it would be commercially worthwhile, this event may extend to a second day.

Helensburgh is already Argyll’s largest town by a formidable margin – it represents around a third of the population of the entire area. It also sits alongside Dumbarton sharing a local radio service. (Your Radio has studios and individualised services for both towns.) Traditionally, with its genteel Clydeside location and its heritage, Helenburgh attracts visitors from nearby Glasgow.

This ‘touch and taste’ event is potentially a powerful opportunity for food, drink and crafts businesses from all over Argyll and the Islands to get their products into the awareness of a much bigger audience – first hand. It can also reinforce the advantages in the Buy Local campaign. Helensburgh’s residents tend to look to Glasgow for their specialist products. This fair can turn their many eyes to the superior quality of food, drink and crafts produced in Argyll.

With enough participants this fair could be held in Colquhoun Square, Helensburgh’s open and attractive Town Centre. This would require road closures – which itself adds to the fun and the public attention. However, arranging this takes time – so if you’re planning to take your business to the fair, confirm it now through Tony Dance (tony.dance@viton.org.uk). Advance knowledge of numbers will let the organisers make all necessary arrangements in good time.

Local radio station – Your Radio – will be broadcasting live from this event to West Dunbartonshire, Clydebank and across the Clyde to Greenock and Port Glasgow. Fun side events are planned – such as cookery and food-preparation demonstrations, dancing and singing performances.

The photographs here are reproduced under the Creative Commons licence. They show, from the top, Helensburgh’s renowned Hill House (photograph by Jeremy Atherton) , designed by architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and run by the National Trust for Scotland; and John Logie Baird, inventor of television.