ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The 2026 Pancake Day festivities are on the horizon, and while Liberal is preparing for its part of the fun, so is its sister city, Olney, England.
As Olney Pancake Board member Ruth Martin tells it, the community is well in the thick of preparations.
“We've launched the entries – we do it slightly differently than Liberal – we launched all of that online and through social media, and we already have all the individual places taken,” Martin said. “We've got 25 runners, and we're waiting for more of the three-legged race runners. All of that is currently under way, and we're also busy working on the poster competitions with the kids, and all the arrangements with the schools to bring runners down, and everything else involved in making Pancake Day a successful event.”
Martin said there is a lot to be excited for across the pond with this year’s Pancake Day.
“It's half-term in the schools this year, which I've not experienced – I've been involved the last five years, and I've not yet experienced that, so we're excited about what that's going to mean in terms of families coming,” Martin said. “Instead of the children coming down with their teachers, they'll be able to come with siblings and their parents and other family members, so that's going to give it a very different feel. We're also trying to arrange for other activities for the children in terms of entertainers – we've got an amazing fairground organ, and we've got a guy called the Great Gappo who rides his unicycle and does balloon sculptures and all of that sort of thing. We’re also delighted to welcome back Fred, Homepride’s bowler-hat-wearing Chief Flour Grader – he's a character from when I was a little girl, and I feel like it'll make me feel like a kid again seeing him because he's so well known. He's black and white, and he's got a big bowler hat on, and he's quite fun. He was there last year, but of course, there are usually only a few children attending, and the children who do attend have to go back to school. With a little bit more time, we're hoping that that that's going to have a different feel. We're also going to have pancake decorating and coloring and puzzles and those types of activities, so we're really excited for this year.”
And planning has been going on already for multiple months, Martin continued.
“We start planning for Pancake Day around September, and that's when we all get together as a committee and review all the feedback and everything that happened and then talk about what went well and how to make the next Pancake Day even better,” Martin said. “We use that as a kickoff point and then just start putting all the plans together. We meet pretty regularly, and we're also always chatting on email or WhatsApp or calling each other about some particular aspect or another. Planning for Pancake Day is always quite a full on thing – people rather think 'It's just a short race, isn't it?' But it definitely takes a lot of organizing and there's a lot that has to be discussed. I coordinate all the volunteers, and I've got a spreadsheet so I know who I need, what I need, and what needs to be done at what time. Frankly, it's almost like a giant Tetris puzzle. I'm also in a local Women's Institute (WI) group, and I and I've got people who volunteered last year, so I contacted them and asked if they could come again. I'm also in a running group, which helped me do a shout-out for the runners. We actually have a security company who helps us with closing the main roads, because there are a lot of little side roads people might just pop out of. It's not inconveniencing people for very long, but it's great to have someone in place who's got the authority to say 'I'm sorry, but you can't drive down there.' so the race is safe.”
With Pancake Day being mere weeks away, Martin said there is an overall positive vibe among the community.
“We typically concentrate our efforts on just Shrove Tuesday, and it's the day before when we're preparing the marquee and everything else in the marketplace. Our ticketed breakfast starts at 8 a.m., with the final serving at 9:30 a.m. Then, the children’s races will start at 10 a.m., and then the main race will be at 11:55 a.m. Later on is when everyone will make their way toward the church for the Shriving Service and video call with Liberal. Everything gets shut down the Sunday night before, and we build the marquee that Monday before, and then shortly after the race is when we start taking everything down from the marquee to get everything back to normal for traffic,” Martin said. “At this point, I know there are some people who are training, we've got several very enthusiastic runners. And of course, with the International Race, there's that extra frizz of excitement about it, but there are a lot of people who just come out and run for the fun of it. The excitement is definitely starting to build, and we're starting to do more social media about all the amazing raffle prizes we've got from the local businesses and that sort of thing. And recently, I was walking around town with posters saying how we're proud to sponsor the Pancake Day race and give those to all of the shops that have very kindly donated prizes, which is also rather a sneaky way of getting extra publicity, I hope.”
And efforts to spread the word about this year’s festivities will not be slowing down, Martin said.
“Like every year, we talk to lots of local media outlets. We have a lovely magazine called The Phone Box, which goes out to Olney and multiple other towns and villages in the area, and they're very supportive. We've also built up a number of local contacts throughout the years, so I dropped in on them and I ask 'Can I come and talk to you?' or 'Can I come on the show?' I've done interviews on some local radio stations, and I'm hoping there'll be more of them in the next few weeks,” Martin said. “We also do quite a lot of social media, and we have an online notice board where people share what's going on, and but I post regularly on there to keep people updated. And of course, we've got a Web site as well, so there are quite a lot of different channels. We might even have one of the national television stations doing their weather at the race – all of that is being finalized at the moment, but it just gives the race a profile, which makes it such a special one here in the UK. I think everyone's excited about getting the race full. It's always lovely to have lots of ladies running and really engage with the local community and get a sense of families coming and spending the day with us, which is something that we've not been able to tap into for quite a while. And of course, you never know what the weather's going to do, so we'll be keeping an eye on that as well.”
Overall, Martin said, she and her fellow board members are looking forward to another successful Pancake Day.
“We're expecting this year's Pancake Day to be successful again for 2026, and we're really looking forward to seeing everyone come out and seeing the competition that goes on. We really love the international dimension, and people are fascinated when we tell them how we're sort of twinned with Liberal in terms of the race,” Martin said. “We've also got Tessy Barnett from Liberal coming and running in Olney this year, and we're really excited to have her coming across the pond. I think it's great to have someone who's that motivated to be with us. It's just brilliant having her representing that international link and that friendship. We'd like to send our best wishes to our friends and colleagues in Liberal, we're glad we all will have the chance to celebrate together, so hopefully everything goes well for you there.”
