What a great start to the rally. Everything went like clockwork although we did have one or two glitches. The stall traders arrived bright and early and all were set up ready to go by 10am. The band arrived for their walk down to Anchor bridge, they were being taken from there to the rally site by historic boats Bath and Dawn Rose.
Dead on the allocated time for the opening they arrived and sailed into the open lock. Now that is where the first glitch happened. Bottom gates were closed, the band started to play and....ah, why are they still at the bottom? Noone had thought of taking windlasses to bring the boats up. A good 5 minutes sitting in the bottom of the lock playing their instruments before Dave on Bath signalled to Ian for a windlass. Frantic race back to FS and finally they band ascended.
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| Izzie & Dave. |
Once the bands had left the boats the opening ceremony began and then the second glitch. The wireless mike would have worked brilliantly if the tents hadn't been erected in the line of sight of the receiver. To say we caught every other word is an understatement! Never mind, most standing nearby heard what was said.
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| Norman (Chairman) on the mike with the Mayor by his side. Next to the Mayor is Shirley Norman's wife. |
From then on the festival went brilliantly. Footfall was excellent and the weather wonderful. The Spitfire flypast was a tad early but giving us four flypasts instead of three made up for the surprise as it arrived. The site closed at 4.40pm and then it was time for the partying for the boaters in the marquee. A fantastic end to day 1.
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| East Midlands today filming the band. |
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| Selling tea, coffee and Prosecco. |
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| Entertainment during the day |
I took these photos before the site opened.
1 comment:
All that hard work has been well worth it then! Well done everyone.
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