Festival season kicks off (From Stroud News and Journal)

Festival season kicks off

FIVE Valleys festivities got off to a great start this Saturday with the launch of the Nailsworth Festival. The event marks the beginning of the festival season in the area as towns and villages gear up to celebrate the summer. Sam Bond reports, pictures by Mark Watkins.

A GANG of giants and a towering Dalek descended on Nailsworth at the weekend, drawn by the promise of fun and festivities.

Despite a shaky start to the day with unsettled weather when organisers thought they may have to hold events indoors, by mid morning the sun was shining through.

The open day at the fire station pulled in the crowds who flocked to see a car torched and fire-fighters using a foam cannon. There was also the Nailsworth Festival tradition - the chip pan fire.

Eco-charity Energy 21 took people on a tour of local renewable energy sites, including the Nympsfield turbine, showed children how to make cookers using only the power of sunshine and raffled energy-saving goods in a solar tombola.

Members of the London Community Gospel Choir, led by Wayne Ellington, transformed a rag-tag bunch of Nailsworth people into an angelic, talented choir.

The morning workshop was followed by a double bill of performance at Nailsworth Primary School with the community choir preceded on stage by a youth choir from Stourbridge called Stream of Sound who produced a staggering a capella performance.

Dozens of doughnuts were gobbled up by contestants eager to take part in the Hobbs House Bakery competition while elsewhere in the town's pubs and cafes the festival pie was eaten at a more leisurely pace.

A lovingly-restored traditional steam engine did laps of the town centre, making regular trips up and down Old Market and round the bus station.

Youngsters geared up for the Golden Jubilee at a crown and coronet making workshop.

A varied mix of street entertainment saw clowning on stilts, juggling, musicians and Appalachian clog dancing from Five Valleys festival favourites Roughshod.

And while Festival Saturday saw the launch of the annual celebration of life in Nailsworth there are still some great events lined up as the entertainment continues for another week.

Tomorrow night, Thursday, following on from last night's talk on farming in the 40s, Will there be enough to eat?, there will be a talk by journalist Moyra Bremner about the state of food production in the 21st century called: We have enough to eat, but is our food safe? The talk will be held at the library at 8pm.

Food will also be a festival feature with an evening of Bangladeshi cuisine, music song and dance on Friday at Nailsworth school from 7.30pm.

This Saturday will see mediaeval Spanish music performed by Tamburrini at the town hall followed by tapas at William's Kitchen.

Ruskin Mill is planning a weekend of workshops covering a range of arts and crafts and there will be an exhibition featuring paintings by Anthony Hodge in the town centre. Another exhibition, Faith and Festivals, is on show at the Friends Meeting House.

The festivities will be rounded off next Sunday with the madcap Nailsworth W Cycle Race - not for the faint hearted, and a walk called Across the Fields where Romans trod.