The Chalk Pit in Odiham - venue for the Jazz Party and Picnic

August Bank Holiday weekend saw the return of the ever popular Odiham Jazz Party and Picnic, in Odiham – North Hampshire. This annual event plays a large part in the fundraising activities of the Neurofibromatosis Association.

Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder of the nerve tissue, which can occur in ANY family. It is progressive, unpredictable and no two cases are the same. There are two types of Neurofibromatosis, NF1 and NF2 and, at the moment, there is no cure. It has many devastating effects and it can cause premature death. There are over 25,000 people in the UK living with neurofibromatosis. All proceeds from the Jazz Party and Weekend went towards providing support for those in Hampshire and the surrounding areas. For more information visit www.nfauk.org.

Held in the fabulous setting of the Odiham Chalk Pit, by kind invitation of Ted & Eileen Pither and family, the Seventh Jazz Party & Picnic was extended by one day with a Lunchtime Jazz ’n’ Barbecue on the Sunday. In spite of the torrential rain a few days before, the Chalk Pit looked a picture with the sun shining throughout the weekend and everyone had a great time, with picnics and one or two glasses of wine to lubricate the evening.

81 red balloons supplied the balloon decorations, the general and chalk face lighting was provided by RAF Odiham, stage lighting was donated by David Eden and yards of bunting and numerous candles all helped to create the party atmosphere for about 800 people over the two days. Saturday evening was bought to an end with a spectacular firework display, supplied by FAB Fireworks.

Saturday was a mix of bop and modern Jazz featuring top British Jazz stars, The Richard Shepherd Quartet with special guests, Alan Barnes, Mark Nightingale, Steve Waterman and Jacqui Dankworth.

Sunday’s Barbeque was a new addition to the event and featured mainstream and traditional jazz from the popular Phil Brown Swingtet.

As well as being a great weekend with good music, picnics, and just a few glasses of wine the event raised £15,000 for the Neurofibromatosis Association an increase of £4000 on last year.

The balloons were supplied by The Neurofibromatosis Association and 81 red balloons donated our time and labour free of charge in support of the charity.

P.s A big thank you to Garrett for letting us use his pics :)

Well we've finally finished the new website. we've put up all the shelves, given everything a lick of paint and oiled all the rusty hinges and we think we're ready to go!

So we'd like to welcome you to the new look 81 Red Balloons website. We hope you like it!

We became Balloon Decorators because it's fun, we really enjoy what we do and even if you don't need our decorating services (yet!) we hope you enjoy coming back to our site to see what we've been up to, and joining in with some of the fun stuff we've got lined up for the future.

We've posted a few articles over the last couple of months to warm us up with the whole blog thing and fill in a bit of background for anyone who hasn't got to know us yet, so take a scroll through the archives and check it out :)

Everythings been posted in date order which means that you'll always see the most recent entries on the home page so the further back you go, the more you'll know. :)

Thanks for coming to www.81redballoons.co.uk and we hope you have as much fun reading about our antics as we had doing them!

Welcome to our world - The 81 Red Balloons team :)