24-07-2005 Are you ready for a Weird Weekend?

For Immediate release
July 24th 2005
ARE YOU READY FOR A WEIRD WEEKEND?

For the sixth year running, devotees of the weird and wonderful, the strange and supernatural, and the downright odd will be converging onto an ancient grey stone pub on the outskirts of Exeter for what has become the biggest event of this type of the year.

The `Weird Weekend` was the brainchild of Jonathan Downes (45), Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology – the world’s largest cryptozoological [mystery animal research] organisation.

“Because we receive no Government funding, we are thrown back onto our own resources to a certain extent,” he says. “Each year we finance research across the globe into looking for unknown animal species, and it gets expensive. So, six years ago, we decided to hire a pub for the weekend, invite some people to lecture on subjects that we found interesting, and see if the public were interested in coming along”.

It has grown from there really. Six years on, this year’s event features lectures from Dr Gail-Nina Anderson (fairies in art), Chris Moiser (the Cryptozoology of Sherlock Holmes), Peter Costello (Lake Monsters), Nick Redfern (what REALLY happened at Roswell), and Richard Freeman (The 2005 expedition in search of the Mongolian Deathworm).

All proceeds from this year’s event (tickets are £18 a head for the weekend by the way), go towards financing a second expedition to Mongolia in July 2005, in search of the fabled Mongolian deathworm – a 3-4 foot long snake like animal said to bedeadly poisonous and which is unknown to science.

Be there or be square.

FOR MORE DETAILS, PRESS PASSES AND INTERVIEWS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO RING JON OR RICHARD.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

+ The Centre for Fortean Zoology is a non profit-making organisation, which was founded in 1992. Over the last 11 years we have mounted expeditions to Central America, Thailand, Mexico, various parts of the United States, as well as numerous investigations in the UK. Further information on the CFZ can be found on their website www.cfz.org.uk.
+ C F Z director Jonathan Downes has written numerous books on the subject of mystery animals. The latest, entitled `Monster Hunter` is his long awaited autobiography.
+The honorary life President of the Centre for Fortean Zoology is renowned explorer, author and soldier Colonel John Blashford-Snell OBE, best known for his pioneering Operation Drake and Operation Raleigh expeditions during the 1970s.
+ The CFZ is looking for corporate and private sponsors