COLUMN - My Melton with Kelly Davies

It’s one of our fantastic village flagship events and has just concluded its 21st year of festivities.

Those of you who follow me on social media on ‘My Melton’ will have seen that my first festival cup got a battering, courtesy of a very lively Linkin Park tribute, aka the sweatiest rendition of Numb outside of Download.

Not as sweaty as the end of the Limp Bizkit set, mind, but that was down to the fact we partook in multiple ‘circle pits’ led by Gandalf.

This is something that one doesn’t normally think of when they think of the Melton borough, until you realise a mosh pit at last year’s Glastonbudget was led by Jesus.

Suddenly, it makes sense why there’s a Fat Boy Slim set at the same time as the Elton John tribute.

Village flagship events are a massive part of our visitor economy.

Glastonbudget, alone, brings in around 15,000 people.

They deserve to be pushed, just as much as their town centre-based counterparts.

It’s something I hope the new council cabinet acknowledges when they start to make plans around our investment and promotion strategies.

I await with bated breath what these plans are and hope to see events like Glastonbudget pushed out to potential tourists in the near future.

Speaking of pushing and celebrating great things in the borough, nominations for the Melton BID Business Awards are now open.

I’m so happy it’s back and want to remind you that a business doesn’t have to be in the BID region to be eligible.

Village businesses are fair game, as are town businesses; they just need to be based in the borough.

If you know a cracking village business that goes above and beyond, nominate them.

Last year, we had multiple award winners based in the villages, and even more were shortlisted as finalists.

Just make sure to submit your nominations by June 30 or they won’t count.

This borough has a plethora of amazing events and businesses.

Let’s use these new opportunities that have presented themselves to us to celebrate and showcase them.