Maidstone says goodbye as Shaun the sheep art trail enters it's final week
The organisers of the Shaun the Sheep trail through Maidstone are still hoping to reach their fundraising goals despite two of the sculptures being vandalised.
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00:00So, Rachel, thank you very much for joining us here today outside of Shaun HQ there.
00:05What's been the response from this?
00:07We're heading towards the end now of the trail.
00:10There must have been a lot of happy Shaun hunters coming to the HQ during the summer
00:15holidays.
00:16Yeah, absolutely.
00:17The Heart of Kent Hospice has had a fantastic summer with Shaun in the Heart of Kent.
00:23We've had about 10,000 downloads of the app, over half a million unlocks on the apps and
00:29the pedometer is saying that people have walked 22,000 miles.
00:34So it's been really well welcomed by the people who have made it today.
00:37Absolutely.
00:38I mean, you and yourself and the team must be sad to see them go in a week's time.
00:44Yeah, the Farewell Weekend, which is happening on the 13th to the 15th of September, will
00:49be a real kind of celebration of the end of the Shaun trail.
00:52And actually people will get to see all 109 Shaun's all together under one roof.
00:57So that'll be fantastic, but also a bit of a sad kind of time because it means that the
01:01end of the trail is there.
01:03Of course.
01:04Tell me about that Farewell Weekend.
01:05What can people expect?
01:09So the Farewell Weekend is happening from the 13th to the 15th of September.
01:13It's in Maidstone Market Hall, which is in Lochbeddo.
01:16People can get their tickets online at shaunheartofkent.co.uk.
01:21And there in the market hall, you'll be able to see all 52 large sculptures and 57 small
01:27sculptures all together.
01:29And it will be a real spectacle, kind of colour and art, and it will be very vibrant and lots
01:34of fun.
01:35Lots of fun.
01:36But of course, in the last few days, it's not been the most positive time for the Shaun's.
01:39Two of them were, of course, vandalised.
01:42What was the team's kind of reaction to that?
01:44Because that's two Shaun's that won't now go to auction with the money going back to
01:48the hospice.
01:50Yeah, absolutely.
01:52We were just absolutely heartbroken at the beginning of this week when we found out that
01:57two of the Shaun's have been so badly vandalised that they're pretty much irreparable and won't
02:01make it onto the auction.
02:02And it's not only the team that have worked on this for the last 18 months.
02:06It's the artists that have spent many, many hours painting very detailed and intricate
02:10designs.
02:11It's the companies that have sponsored those Shaun's.
02:14And of course, it's the community of Maidstone who are also just as heartbroken as we are
02:18that they got vandalised.
02:19We will do what we can to repair them if we can.
02:25We don't think we're going to be able to repair them in time for the auction.
02:27And as you said, we're aiming to raise £250,000 at the auction.
02:32And those two sculptures make up about £10,000 of that.
02:35So we're hoping that people rally and help us meet that target, even though we're two
02:39Shaun's down.
02:40Well, best of luck with that.
02:42Can you just remind us as well where that money will be going towards at the hospice?
02:46Because £250,000 sounds like quite a lot.
02:49£250,000 is a significant amount of money for Heart of Kent Hospice.
02:54Every year we need to raise over £5 million to run our services, where we provide care
02:59and support for people who are living with a terminal illness and who are facing the
03:02end of their lives.
03:03So this money will go to that care and that support that the hospice provides.
03:08Absolutely, and such an important cause as well, affecting so many families.
03:13But then, of course, in the short term, this whole event has affected so many people by
03:17putting a smile on their face as they head around Maidstone.
03:20Just before we finish, is there a favourite Shaun of yours?
03:24Mine is the Olympics one that's been roaming around to lots of different areas.
03:28Yeah, the roaming Shaun's fantastic.
03:31My Shaun is one that's actually behind me, is Seananigans, which is the Ralph Steadman.
03:37It's just beautiful.
03:38It's so intricate.
03:40It's one of those ones where the more you look at it, the more and more you see on the
03:43detail of the design.
03:44I just love it to bits.
03:46Rachel, thank you very much for joining us today.
03:48You're welcome.