Buckingham flies the flags for its twin towns ahead of weekend celebration

Buckingham is flying the flags to celebrate its twin towns in Europe, ahead of a celebratory visit this weekend.

The town centre has been decorated with French, German and Union Jack flags, in advance of a visit from its twinning partners and an afternoon of entertainment in their honour.

Delegations from Neukirchen-Vluyn in Germany and Mouvaux in France will be visiting Buckingham to celebrate the friendship between the three towns.

The Mayors of Buckingham and Neukirchen-Vluyn will sign the English version of the formal twinning between the two towns.

The weekend also marks 20 years of Buckingham’s twinning with Mouvaux.

The visiting groups will include the mayors of each town, and people involved with the twinning association in each area.

Guests will be staying with host families in Buckingham and will spend time getting to know the town during the weekend visit.

To celebrate, Buckingham Town Council is hosting Twinning in the Market, a light-hearted musical celebration of France, Germany and the UK.

There will be performances from three acts as a tongue-in-cheek cultural tribute to the three countries - a mime artist, German oompah band Edelweiss All Stars, and the Brackley Morris Men.

The performances will take place in front of the Old Gaol between 10am and 2pm on Saturday, March 19.

The entertainment for Twinning in the Market is part-funded by the government’s Welcome Back Fund, providing councils across England a share of £56 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to support the safe return to high streets and help build back better from the pandemic.

Buckingham also hosts its popular street and flea markets each Saturday, and with sunny weather forecast, the town council hopes everyone will enjoy getting together to enjoy all that Buckingham and its twin towns have to offer.

Mayor of Buckingham Margaret Gateley, who will be welcoming the visitors, said: “It is a great honour and pleasure to welcome the Mayors of Mouvaux and Neukirchen-Vluyn alongside other guests to Buckingham this weekend for our long-awaited celebration of our three-way partnership.

"It is particularly important to further such friendships between nations in the light of what is going on elsewhere in our world.”

In advance of the twinning visit, a new fingerpost sign has been installed in the town centre, giving directions to Mouvaux, 252 miles away in France, and Neukirchen-Vluyn, 405 miles away in Germany.

The Welcome to Buckingham signs have also been updated to include Neukirchen-Vluyn, and a new display has been added to the council chamber window with items donated from the Twinning Association and the town council archives.