Part 1 – A Great Experience – Northern Ireland Bonsai Society

It’s the day after ‘The Bonsai Experience’ and looking back on the last few days of graft to get everything in place, I think we can all say that it exceeded our own expectations.

The event was for the public to get a taster of what bonsai is really about. We have in the past held exhibitions with a higher standard of display, but due to time constraints with set up of the marquee, we couldn’t do much more in this, one day set up and take down event. Sadly marquees are not the best location for photographing bonsai either but, all that aside, we were blown away with the public’s response. We had 1171 people through the door according to the clicker counter. 160 people signed our visitors book lots of locals but also tourists from USA, Europe and even Japan. All 20 places in our free children’s bonsai workshop were used, we could have done more! We had over 60 trees exhibited with trees from members of our sister club in Munster as well.

It’s taken me a few hours just to wade through what’s on my camera from yesterday and pick a selection. Many just capture the ‘feeling’ of the show and just how successful the Children’s workshops were. Look at those smiling faces :-) The gallery below is long but I know many people want to check in here to get photos of their children during the event. Hits on the site already suggest that they are looking! If you took photos at the event please feel free to post them up on our Facebook page to share with the rest of us.