We held our AGM in the evening of 18th March, at St Thomas's Church Hall.

The Mayor of Lewes, Graham Mayhew, as Honorary President of the Association, formally opened the Meeting and talked about his past experiences in both Waldshut-Tiengen and Blois. He also mentioned a few memories of former Chairman, Jack Greenaway.

During the week of 10th August, Waldshut-Tiengen was to see an influx of English people from the twin town of Lewes, to enjoy Chilbi weekend. Those attending from Lewes, included: Lewes Twinning Association Chairman, Jackie Price, with her husband, Ashley (who was going for his sixth Chilbi in a row) as well as the Mayor of Lewes (and Honorary President of Lewes Twinning Assoc.), Susan Murray, and her husband, the Mayor's Consort, Roger, as well as a number of others. 

The photo below shows Ashley, Susan Murray, Jackie and Roger on their first evening, with Waldshut Twinning Association President, Elvira Hansmann. Also, there (but taking the photo) was Simone Heß.

In the evening of Wednesday 29th April, Lewes was visited by members of the Blois Twinning Association plus employees of Blois Council who were interested in creating links with the young people's organisations over here. They were keen to see if work experience, exchange visits, etc. could be made between the two towns. Many of the visitors stayed with host families in the town.

In August Lewes Twinning Association celebrated 40 years of Twinning with our German friends of Waldshut (although Waldshut and Tiengen have now joined as one town, at the time they were still separate).

The Germans decided to hold the celebrations at the same time as their annual Chilbi festival, with anniversary events added on.

The focus for the anniversary was the Heimatabend on the Saturday evening, which was on a stage in the main  
Kaiserstraße, with an audience of around 500. The opening was "Brother John" or "Frère Jacques" sang in the four languages (English, French, German and Swiss), with soloists singing from the windows of buildings, including, for Lewes, Sarah Hall.

There were different acts, dancing and presentations, including groups from Lewes: the Knots of May, LGB Brass and Lewes Operatic Society.

Waldshut had asked both Lewes and Blois to do a video, under the title "Packing for Chilbi". As Waldshut-Tiengen was also reconfirming their friendship with Switzerland, they had also been asked to do a video. The videos were shown on a big screen and the Lewes one got a lot of laughs.

You can see our video here:

A Big Thank You goes to the following (guests in order of appearance):

Sue Disney - Knots of May
Simon Emberley - LGB Brass
Colin & Kath Reynolds - Lewes Operatic Society
Liz Allsobrook & Nick Allsobrook - Lewes Twinning Association
Mike Turner & Anne Turner - Lewes Mayor and Mayoress
Jackie Price (unseen, throwing t-shirt) - Chairman, Lewes Twinning Association
Me (Ashley Price) (Packing the case) - Lewes Twinning Association
Mick Hawksworth - Video production

The video got a lot of laughs and during the rest of the weekend many people commented on how good it was.

The rest of the weekend was Chilbi as usual. As always the Mayor of Lewes is invited by the Oberbürgermeister, Martin Albers, to open the festival on the Friday afternoon, by "Tapping the Barrel", and helping to serve the thirsty onlookers.

On Sunday afternoon, as usual was the procession through the town, by local groups and societies - with one important difference. This year, for the first time, Lewes Twinning Association had been invited to join in the procession. We decided to carried handmade banners to represent the different parts of Lewes (see the photo at the top of this report).

Here is a slideshow of photos from the weekend, including other Lewes groups and organisations performing during the Chilbi/anniversary weekend.

Chilbi is always a fantastic weekend and we have already booked for 2015. If you would like to know more about Chilbi, see HERE.

Friday 16th to Wednesday 21st saw the 545 Waldshuter Chilbi, and several Twinning members were over in our twin town to help celebrate part of the event.

There was also a delegation from Lewes Civic, including the Mayor, Ruth O'Keeffe, Mayor's Consort, Nic Robinson, the Town Clerk and the Mayor's Secretary.

Lewes's Mayor opens the event with the official "barrel tapping"...

Lewes is celebrating 50 years of Twinning with Blois. However, Blois is also celebrating 50 years of Twinning with German town Waldshut-Tiengen.

So the Mayors from the three towns met in Blois to renew the Twinning Protocol.