The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Unusual mix of fins and roses proved a cause for celebration
As festival chiefs stare at a blank events calendar, James Wyllie looks at some of the celebrations which have brightened Aberdeen’s streets in years gone by – including an unusual pairing of fish and flowers
Many would assume that a flower festival running out of plants would be a disaster. But in August 1983 the organisers of Aberdeen’s inaugural Rose Festival could not have been happier.
A celebration of hor tic ulture had been planned on the back of the city’s impressive string of Britain in Bloom victories.
A total of 250,000 roses had been ordered for the event, all donated by local growers Anderson’s and Crocker’s.
On Saturday August 20, volunteers took to the streets to distribute them, passing out free buttonholes to shoppers, diners, cashiers, drivers and traffic wardens.
The exception was police marshalling a match at Pittodrie – the P&J reported – due to fear “of comments from football fans”.
By noon all of the flowers had been handed out by the city’s “Rosegirls”, with those in charge considering upping their next order to a million to meet demand.
The festival was expanded in 1984, featuring daily processions with a pipe band and the city’s Rosegirls waving to onlookers from a horsedrawn carriage.
A youngster named Denise, the event’s Rose Queen, was also flown to Glasgow to hand over a 250- rose display in the shape of a rainbow.
These acts grew grander as the years went by – at one point involving private couriers and a chartered flight to deliver two varieties of rose for a display in the background of that evening’s Wogan talk show.
However, Aberdeen Rose Festival also grew in a perhaps less expected direction when Aberdeen Fish Festival arrived on the scene in 1984.
Fishmongers from across the region competed to present the best stall, while hotel balcony cooking demonstrations wowed the tens of thousands of spectators.
Appearances from the likes of Howards’ Way actress Suzy Gilmore and singer Fiona Kennedy added to the star power throughout the years, but organisers said the focus was firmly on the fish.
A write- up of the 1989 festival in The P&J described a new fishfilleting machine as the “highlight” of the event – saying it “really caught the public imagination”.
A star attraction in later years was a replica fishhouse, where onlookers could see fresh catches arrive and pass through the stages of processing. Fishmonger Ken Watmough took part in two festivals, setting up a stall.
He said: “It was very good PR for my business, as in 1982 I had taken over a very run-down fishmonger’s shop in Thistle Street.
“This was also at a time when holidays abroad were becoming very popular and the holidaymakers, having eaten certain species of fish and shellfish while away, created a demand for them when they returned home.
“There was no source in Aberdeen then for this range but I established very strong links with international food importers by attending food shows at Olympia and Earl’s Court in London and created a reputation for stocking fresh exotic fish species such as tuna, swordfish and shark and also a range of large exotic gambas prawns.
“The Aberdeen Fish Festivals gave me an extra shop window to promote my business.”
Initially a separate event, the fish and rose festivals became synonymous over the years, eventually being marketed side-by-side. They were so closely linked that posters distributed in the mid-1980s illustrated the extravaganza with images of a dancing fish holding a rose its mouth.
Like the floral gifts sent in prior years, seafood was
also a popular present, with the festival used to send it across the globe.
One year the two were combined, with specially prepared boxes of roses and fish sent by road to mayors in cities throughout England and France.
Each included a goodwill message from Lord Provost Henry Rae, explaining the reasoning for the “odd combination of products from land and sea”.
In following years the festival was relaunched as Grampian Seafood Fayre and fully incorporated the oft-accompanying celebration of roses.
However, the growing popularity of the event also contributed to its downfall. Safety fears led to the cancellation of the 1994 events, with officials saying an increase in weekend harbour traffic on the water was “incompatible with having 20,000 people milling around”.
The pairing of roses and fish has been overtaken by oil and gas for attracting visitors to the city and primarily for conferences and business meetings rather than floral fun.
Tomorrow we look at festivals which aimed to put Aberdeen on the global stage, such as a football tournament at a city park involving teams from 16 countries.