Don't believe everything you read in the papers...

Three days ago, we sent out a press release about the 2006 Lammas Games, a fun event for all the family held in Oxfordshire and run by The Druid Network.

“Traditional harvest sports such as wife-carrying, spear throwing and giant cheese rolling will return to Oxfordshire this summer,” said the press release, explaining how these games originally formed part of ancient celebrations for the season of Lammas, when fairs, tournaments and rituals were held in honour of the first harvest.

The release highlighted a spear throwing festival (with an effigy of Ronald MacDonald as a target, making the political point that Lammas should be about working in harmony with nature); the availability of a new, appropriately named real ale called Druid’s Fluid, displays of Stav, an ancient martial based on rune stones and the opportunity to see a Druid Lammas Ritual.

Good exciting stuff, we thought, but was it exciting enough for the Oxford Mail? Gosh no. They upped the wow factor sky high.

Their report this morning talks of a ‘giant’ effigy of Ronald MacDonald being ‘ceremonially burnt,’ by ‘Druids in full robes,’ while others ‘fight with staves,’ ‘fuelled’ by real ale.

After the initial shock at the unrepentant hype, we and the client had a good laugh. What an imaginative scene! Okay, none of the stuff in quotation marks above was true, but we had to admit it made the games sound even more interesting and the journalist concerned had been kind enough to list full details of the event so no one was in any doubt about when and where it was to be held.

Only Fox, the spear throwing organiser is still worried sick. He’s having real trouble tracking down a ‘giant’ red-haired clown at such short notice…