1/5/2008Groovy green place!
IT WAS, when all was said and done, a magical five months – a long hot summer that seared itself into Glasgow's collective memory.
Between April and September 1988, the Glasgow Garden Festival was a place of relentless optimism and goodwill.
Its kaleidoscopic array of attractions, sideshows, daily events, entertainers and horticultural displays hooked more than four million visitors from home and abroad.
Gardening enthusiasts were absorbed by the displays of flowers and vegetables. Families, ice-creams in hand, strolled contentedly from attraction to attraction all day long.
Grannies found themselves trying out skateboarding for the first and last times in their lives.
Adventurous souls went to the top of the 240ft viewing tower or braved the Coca-Cola thrill-ride that took you upside-down at stomach-churning speeds.
The festival was part of our lives for five months. Saying goodbye to it was a real wrench.
As the Evening Times observed in the final week: "There is a stunned, sad feeling that it for just to vanish ... is going to give us all terrible withdrawal symptoms."
Relive the Garden Festival's glory days by visiting www.eveningtimes.co.uk
Between April and September 1988, the Glasgow Garden Festival was a place of relentless optimism and goodwill.
Its kaleidoscopic array of attractions, sideshows, daily events, entertainers and horticultural displays hooked more than four million visitors from home and abroad.
Gardening enthusiasts were absorbed by the displays of flowers and vegetables. Families, ice-creams in hand, strolled contentedly from attraction to attraction all day long.
Grannies found themselves trying out skateboarding for the first and last times in their lives.
Adventurous souls went to the top of the 240ft viewing tower or braved the Coca-Cola thrill-ride that took you upside-down at stomach-churning speeds.
The festival was part of our lives for five months. Saying goodbye to it was a real wrench.
As the Evening Times observed in the final week: "There is a stunned, sad feeling that it for just to vanish ... is going to give us all terrible withdrawal symptoms."
Relive the Garden Festival's glory days by visiting www.eveningtimes.co.uk
