Northumberland Day 2021 will be engaging people across the county of Northumberland on Sunday May 30th, when the fifth Northumberland Day takes place and red and yellow flags will be hoisted high.
Northumberland Day is completely privately run and funded by Catapult PR Ltd and the agency has again put on a plethora of online activities to keep Northumbrians engaged this year and are delighted to see some events taking place, organised by businesses either specifically staging something for the county day or running something on it.
Apart from the events listed, Northumberland Day organisers have done everything possible to raise excitement and the response on social media has been phenomenal already.
Leading the rallying have been mascot Northumbear and his friends, NElephant, Oswaldain and Heartley, fact files for each of which have appeared, so children can get to know them better.
The four have also recorded their own sea shanty, urging people to Hoist the Flag for Northumberland Day.
The video can be seen on Vimeo also and the lyrics are at the Northumberland Day website – www.northumberlandday.co.uk – so people can download them and create their own videos. Northumbear would love to see such videos shared, so he can see who’s celebrating and videos galore would be fantastic, connecting lots of families, schools and businesses together in song.
Meanwhile, a new, exciting and bespoke escape game-style challenge, Unlock the Treasure, has been created and is downloadable at the website, to challenge the minds and logic of many a participant.
The mystery can be downloaded as a paper game, cut up in order to enable play, and then solved – if people get their logical minds and thinking caps on. The aim is to determine the magic word that will unlock the treasure in the fictional Warlang Castle.
Anyone finding that magic word can then use it to enter a Northumberland Day competition, which will see them winning a £150 voucher, to spend at Langley Castle Hotel, either on private hire of one of the castle’s brand-new domes, or on accommodation, with the voucher, for instance, covering a night’s B&B for two people in the castle’s Castle View accommodation.
Additionally, Northumberland Day is remembering those who will not be with us to celebrate this year, through a Northumberland Stars initiative. People can submit the name of a loved one, who has passed away during the past year and where they came from. Stars carrying those details will then be uploaded to the website.
The children’s letter-writing competition, Letter to Northumbear, is enthusing schools across the county, with some schools, like Whittingham CofE Primary and Bellingham Primary School, having their own postboxes in which pupils can post their entries.
Other Letter to Northumbear postboxes can be found at Newbiggin Maritime Centre, Amble Pin Cushion, Coastline in Blyth, the Saltwater Café in Beadnell, Langley Castle Hotel near Haydon Bridge and Hexham Abbey. Those wishing to enter direct can do so by emailing entries to office@northumberlandday.co.uk
A new Northumberland Day Education Pack for 2021, on the theme of castles, has been made available as an education resource and features lots of activities and some games too.
To keep the castles theme going, there is a Castles Quiz available at the Northumberland Day website, with a voucher to be won by someone doing their research and answering all 25 castles questions correctly.
This year, there are also the ‘Bunties’ awards, temporarily replacing the usual ‘Northumbies’, and rewarding the Best Decorated School, Community Place, Business and Home. These are hand-made glass awards by glass artist, Helen Grierson, who has her studio at The Old Bath House, North Broomhill, and are very special.
Already in contention are shops like Lindsay’s Opticians in Berwick-upon-Tweed, which have already decorated their window in preparation for Northumberland Day, plus towns like Seahouses, which are not only working towards festooning the town in red and yellow but also launching new Northumberland food items in several shops, such as Scotty’s the Butcher, the Rolling Pig, the Spitting Feathers, Elan the Pizza restaurant, Coxon Ice Cream and Hook, the new Fish and Chip shop, as they look to thrill customers.
A Taste of Northumbria in Alnwick is launching four new beers and a new gin for Northumberland Day and will have lots of red and yellow decorations around, so could be another contender.
Another Buntie Award will be for the winner of the annual Northumberland Day Flag Challenge – the person pictured with the flag in the most unexpected place or fashion. Entries featuring the flag at the top of Thailand’s highest mountain, up Ben Nevis, in the photos of a wedding in Greece and in military scenarios have already been received, but there’s still chance to get an entry planned and entered.
Events are taking place at Northumberland Museums’ sites, Woodhorn, the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum, Berwick Museum and Art Gallery and Hexham Old Gaol and there is a Northumberland Day walk to Holy Island with Footsteps Northumberland and two sunset cruises to Longstone Island.
Hexham Abbey has a very special event, including the making of origami angels, on Monday May 31.
A wildlife safari in the Ingram Valley is another thing to potentially do this Northumberland Day and, if you want to raise money for charity, you can abseil the walls of Langley Castle, near Haydon Bridge, on June 5 and 6.
Langley Castle will also be turning one of its brand-new domes red and yellow, theming it for Northumberland Day 2021, as it showcases how these can be decked out for private celebrations, afternoon teas, anniversaries, birthdays and so on, whilst gazing at the walls of a castle built in 1350.
The wonderful Blyth lightship, LV50, has launched a new virtual tour of the ship and new primary school resources, with details of these available at the Northumberland Day site.
There will also be some social media competitions and other things to look out for over the next few days.
Furthermore, to keep the spirit going all year, a Northumberland Day podcast has been launched, with the first episode telling everyone about Northumberland Day 2021 and what is happening. This can be heard here but will also soon be available on main podcast channels https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/northumberlandday
The aim is to keep the Northumberland stories about new things to do and new product launches and business news, plus many more Northumbrian things, top of mind, to help the county really get back on its feet after the pandemic.
Northumberland Day organiser, Jane Hunt, says: “Some of our most avid participants have still not been able to reopen their venues yet and some have literally only been open for a few days. It was not fair to expect them to lay on a variety of events as usual but we are promoting those events that are taking place over the Bank Holiday weekend, to help people find those.
“Our virtual activity is really exciting this year and our education activity will help children refocus on their learning skills in a fun way, after so much lost time in class.
“We – and our sea shanty singing mascots – thank everyone who has shown so much enthusiasm for Northumberland Day this year, despite everything. We cannot thank people enough for what they do, whether it is just sticking a flag in a window or sharing a social media post of themselves celebrating.”
To find out about all of the things going on, visit www.northumberlandday.co.uk To submit any details of activities you are staging, or photos of what you are doing, email office@northumberlandday.co.uk News is posted out daily on social media channels to, so just follow Northumberland Day on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and Northumbear on Instagram. Check out the sea shanty there, or on Tik Tok at Catapult PR or JaneHunt06.