The Calis Carnival Committee hope everyone enjoyed the Christmas Fair on Sunday and would like to say a big thank you to everyone who supported the event in one way or another. We would particularly like to thank the newly formed Calis choir, the Sunset Singers who gave two really good performances - the first time they had ever appeared in public. We would also like to thank Hilkat of Pera Organisation who worked through the night building the magnificent balloon house and decorating the outside of the bars.
Fortunately the awful weather of the previous few days abated and we had bright sunshine for most of the day.
As far as the Carnival Committee are concerned we were pleased with the way that the event went (although we do think we can make more improvements for next year) and we feel that we went a long way to achieving many of our original aims and objectives which are:
to help increase tourism in Calis and to help put Calis on the map and give it it's own identity. Several thousand people attended from all over the area and there were coach parties from as far away as Marmaris, Mugla, Dalyan and Kalkan. The bars and restaurants were heaving and all did really well Also all of the stallholders had a profitable day. There were 110+ stalls - at least 80% being Turkish!
to help integrate the communites of Turkish people and foreign residents living in the area. To see all of the excited children of all nationalities queuing up together with their parents to see Santa was fantastic.
to provide a fun, relaxed, safe event - we hope that we achieved this. It also showcased the Calis Carnival and we hope that if people did enjoy themselves they will come back for the Carnival weekend itself on 29/30 May.
to raise money for our charity, helping disadvantaged children in the local area - after deducting the cost of putting on the event we still managed to raise a lot of money for our charity
Now for the financials, for those who are interested and want to where every lira was spent or made -
The event cost us
1,776 TL to put on - this includes everything from hiring in bad weather awnings, tables and chairs, buying santa presents, tombola prizes, mulled wine ingredients, having the carnival bags made and printed, chestnuts, mincemeat ingredients, Santa and Pixie suits, advertising posters, Santa sweets and so on and so on::..
On the day we made a combined total from all of the activities of
4,206 TL. We also had advance sales of various items of 110 TL which gives a grand total of
4,316 TL.
After the overheads of the day were met the total raised, which
ALL goes to the children's charity, is
2,539.81 TL !!Unfortunately the balloon shaper and clown who was due to entertain the children was involved in a road accident in Antalya the day before so was unable to make it and we wish him a speedy recovery.
The winners of the Carnival Christmas raffle were: 1st (Santa Claus soft toy and blue label vodka) Recip of Bostans, 2nd (Reindeer soft toy with gin) Linda Darlington, 3rd (ladies cosmetics basket) Dennis c/o Nil Bar, 4th (meal for 2 at Mozaic Bahce restaurant) Linda of Koca Calis, 5th (hand painted tiles donated by Rosemary) Allison c/o Nil Bar, 6th (yule log donated by Pauline and Kingsley) Recip at Bostans.
The winners of the Meis Visa trip raffle were Martin (ticket 198) and Tony (ticket 200)
Finally Pete and I would personally like to thank all of the members of the committee who were absolutely brilliant and worked many, many hours preparing for the fair and we are very proud to be working with them "hand in hand" for Calis
And now for the promised pictures :::
You can also see a slideshow of different Christmas Fair pictures on our new website at the following link so please have a look
http://www.caliscarnival.com/en/2010-carnival/news/143-calis-christmas-fair-slide-show.htmlimg]