4 days ago
'People come to Shropshire petal field with outfit changes'
Stretching across a large field in Newport with bees and butterflies zipping through the air, Shropshire Petal Fields boasts rows and rows of delphiniums, cornflowers, sunflowers and is open a week earlier due to an unusually dry spring, and is hoping to welcome more than 16,000 people across the 10 days it is vibrant colours, abundance of wildlife and the installation of photo opportunities - including a claw-foot bathtub - means people flock to the site to take pictures for social media."You see people come with three outfit changes and the kids are bribed with ice cream all the way round to get the family pictures," said Beth Heath from Shropshire Festivals.
"We've had a lot of people taking professional pictures, we've had a few proposals."We're all about memories… this makes loads of people smile, and also take a moment."
The flowers remain picture perfect because their maintenance does not involve much human interaction - all the planting and weeding is done by a Heath said people travelled to visit the site, drawing in a lot of people particularly from near Wolverhampton who did not get to experience the countryside as often."There is something very special about standing amongst those colours, that smell and being completely immersed in nature," she said.
"We loved walking around the flowers and all the props that you could stop and take photos at," said Emily from Shrewsbury, who had visited with her family."We're entertaining the children… we're getting great shots of everybody and the flowers so it will definitely be going on social media later."It's quite a big factor because you're collecting lovely memories, but it's quite tricky getting them to smile on cue," she site offers events catered towards different people - there are dog-friendly days and sunset evenings, as well as picnic opportunities, all of which have Insta-worthy photo opportunities.
"It's lovely and the photos are just stunning that you're able to take," said Louise, who lives two miles away."It's nice to come and see so many little ones here, and there's so much wildlife to see on the flowers, all the bees and the butterflies."Meanwhile, Brian and Diane Richards told the BBC they could not believe the location was so close to home."The first time we'd seen pictures but couldn't think where it could be," said Ms Richards."It's hard to believe that's all going to be petals for somebody's wedding at some point," Mr Richards added.
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