CocaCola, Coors and Walls add life to new festivals

WEST Country bagging Mecca White Acres is celebrating winning festival sponsorship from three major non-angling companies.

In an eye-opening development, internationally recognised brands CocaCola, Coors and Walls have stepped in to back events this summer, and I understand that more similar deals are in the pipeline. Each firm will be putting in around £1000 in cash alongside product.

“It’s always great to get non-angling companies involved in the sport and to get brands like these involved is simply fantastic,” said a delighted fishery manager Clint Elliott, who will be starting a new series in Southern Angler soon.”White Acres is part of the massive Parkdean holidays group which has a big reputation in the City. It’s clear that having the profile of a company like that is an enormous help when it comes to things like this. In fact I think its fair to say that retail director Steve Griffiths found it relatively easy to tie up the deals.”

The announcement is a major boost to the match scene as a whole, which has recently lost the long-term backing of Embassy due to new legislation.

It’s a massive tribute to the profile of White Acres, and some will also see it as an embarrassment to the National Federation of Anglers, which has found it almost impossible to find backing from outside of the sport. The NFA recently lost the backing of the Build Center for its knockout competition.

The festivals themselves will target some of the less high profile areas of match fishing.

CocaCola is backing a new Juniors Festival for anglers under 15 years old, alongside Italian tackle firm Triana, and this will take place in March.

Coors Light Lager puts its name to a new Veterans event for over 55s in April and the July Ladies Festival, run for the first time last year, wins backing from top ice cream brand Walls Solero.

“There has already been keen interest in the junior event,” said Clint. “We have already received 20 entries in the first two weeks after the festival was announced. I’ve told plenty of our older anglers about the Vets event, but as yet the take-up has not been considerable, although this may be due to fact that they have forgotten about it already!” he joked.

“Seriously though, I am sure each of the new festivals will be a great success and hopefully that will help open some new doors for White Acres and perhaps for match fishing as a whole.”

Aside from the three events already mentioned, there’s a full calendar again this year with the venue’s three main spring festivals being run over a three-week period in April, and the Virgins Festival taking place in June.

October sees the autumn festivals take centre stage, culminating in the œ25,000 Parkdean Masters Final o­n the Saturday October 15th.

The final event of the year is the winter silver fish festival that was an immediate hit with festival regulars when it was introduced last year.

The 2005 White Acres Festival Calendar

CocaCola/Triana Juniors Festival – March 18th to 20th

Coors Light Lager Veterans Festival – April 2nd to 8th

Van Den Eynde Festival – April 9th to 15th

Dynamite Baits Festival – April 16th to 22nd

Keenets Festival – April 23rd to 29th

Daiwa Festival – June 4th to 10th

Walls Solero Ladies Festival – July 2nd to 8th

Preston Innovations Festival – October 1st to 7th

Parkdean Masters Festival – October 8th to 14th

Garbolino/Mosella Silver Fish Festival – December 10TH to 16TH