OUR GUEST SPEAKER

We are delighted to welcome Peter Dowlen as our After Dinner speaker at Icicle Refrozen.

Fascinated at an early age by the space race and lucky enough to be in the school RAF Cadets, together with a sister who had flown in balloons in the very early days, it was pretty inevitable Peter would fall into ballooning at some stage.

Peter’s family trade was in insurance so that career path was inevitable as well.

Eventually, with the ability to combine ballooning and insuring, another inevitably came to pass, leading to a total of four Bennett Insurance balloons and one for an aviation Insurer. Almost

50 years later and with 1,600 P1 hours, Peter’s active flying days are becoming fewer and he now finds himself reminiscing over the many meets, countries and especially the people he has met along the way.

Peter looks forward to sharing his many adventures and experiences with everyone attending the 2025 Icicle meet dinner.

We greatly look forwards to hosting Peter and we hope you will be able to join us.

RAFFLE

A Raffle is planned (at Donnington Grove we have to pay for our trade stand halls). The Trade stand exhibitors have been asked, according to Icicle Tradition, to contribute something in return for their free exposure to the Balloon community. We would also be hugely appreciative if each group dining could donate a small but interesting gift to help put together a fun selection: these raffles are very popular and help keep our expenses down. The 3-4-40 Region does not use IR as a Club fundraiser, in fact with the increase in prices we are barely breaking even, but any excess goes back into funding next year’s Icicle.

As with past years, we will be running a fast-paced raffle draw scheme which will enable more drinking/yarning time after the Guest Speaker has entertained us.

ACCOMMODATION

Donnington Grove is offering a special package for the weekend (2 nights, two persons). Please note that the rates on offer to those attending Icicle Refrozen are considerably reduced from the normal rates and that there are fewer rooms available (36) in this hotel than at previous venues. Booking is only available directly with the hotel.

To reserve a room you will need to telephone the hotel direct on 01635 581000. The whole hotel is booked out to us for the Friday & Saturday nights (no internet reservations) so you need to mention any of the Magic Words such as Icicle Refrozen Meet, Balloonist, or 3-4-40 Event. You’ll need to be quick as rooms sell out fast.