Brereton Bears

It seems like the time of year for lots of fairs, shows and festivals, but the best of these, according to the teddy bears, is the famous Brereton Bear Festival! Can you guess why it is the bears' favourite? That's right - because it's all about bears! It is held bi-annually (that means every two years) in the summer in the lovely Cheshire village of Brereton.

They raise funds for the church and their community groups and they have various "bear-y" activities. Obviously, as it's all about bears, the teddy bears are intending to visit and join in!

The Festival starts on Saturday, 8th July and ends on Monday, 28th August. There is a Car Treasure Hunt and Barbecue on a Saturday in August. That sounds good too!

Then there is The Bear Hunt! All the local people make tableaux containing all sorts of different bears, dressed up in disguises and costumes, and give them funny names like Beartrix Potter (really Beatrix Potter who wrote the Peter Rabbit stories). There are some pictures here of previous scenes. Don't they look funny!!

You can walk (or drive) around the village during July and August and see how many bears you can spot and then list them on a form. There are extra bears to find in St Oswald's Church which will be open at weekends and on Wednesday mornings for you to tick them off your list. Forms are available locally from various places in the village, like the church and the school and wherever you see a sign. There is a prize for whoever finds the most! This is the bears' favourite activity because they like to walk around and see all the bears and what they are getting up to!

Some of the bears have visited before - hence some of the pictures shown here - but it will be the first time for some of the little bears, and, as usual, they had a few questions.

"How far will we have to walk?" asked Tommy, who only has very short legs of course.

"The village is quite spread out," mused Bubbles. "But, if you get tired, I'm sure one of us will offer to carry you for a while."

Tommy thought this was a great idea. He would walk as far as he could, then ask for a lift.

"How do people think up their bear displays?" asked Vicky, wondering if she would be clever enough to think of one.

"Well," replied Bubbles, "the displays are based on a word or words containing 'bear'. In fact, would everyone like to try thinking up a display themselves right now and we can choose our own winner before we go to the festival? Then we can see if anyone else had the same idea in the village."

That got the bears to thinking furiously.

"Grin and bear it!" shouted Henry. "We could have a group of bears sitting there, just grinning!"

"Polar bear!" said Vicky, excitedly, having thought up an idea herself. "Maybe make some sort of igloo, and cover a bear in white fur."

"We're Going On A Bear Hunt!" called Harry. "You know, like the book by Michael Rosen."

"Hungry as a bear!" said Boo, always thinking of his stomach. "We could have lots of bears, and lots of food!"

"Bear hug!" yelled Crackers. "We could all hug each other in one big hug!"

"Like a bear with a sore head!" suggested Teddy. "We could have a bear with a bandage over one side of his head, looking like it was really sore!"

"A bear of very little brain!" offered Lizzy. "We could have a bear dressed as Winnie-the-Pooh, maybe reading a Christopher Robin storybook."

"To bear fruit!" proposed James. "We could have a bear sitting surrounded by lots of different fruit."

"The cupboard is bare!" said Charlie, using a different spelling but sounding the same as 'bear'. "I could find an empty cupboard and a bear could sit next to it."

"Barefoot!" Scary then suggested, doing the same as Charlie and using the different spelling. "Although, of course, we all normally run around with nothing on our paws anyway," he laughed.

There were lots and lots of other ideas as well, and they then all voted on their favourite. It turned out that Charlie's idea was thought to be the most interesting, as he had been the first to use the word 'bear' with a different spelling.

But they also all thought that Crackers deserved a mention because of course, bear hugs are their favourite kind of hugs! Maybe you could think of one or two yourselves, and maybe set up a scene using your own teddy bears? Send us a photo on Facebook - we'd love to see them all!

The bears are thinking that this year they will invite all their friends (26 pairs of eyes are better than 15!) and take a picnic lunch with them and make a day of it. There is lots of space at Brereton Heath Country Park for them to spread out and relax. It will be their very own Teddy Bears' Picnic.

It sounds like this might keep them very busy over the Summer so, if you can, come along and join in too. Don't forget to bring your teddy bear and your picnic! Roll on the Bear Festival!!