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Wendy & I decided not to come this year by boat -
we decided we'd done the River Nene as many times as we fancy. So I booked into
a hotel absolutely adjacent to the site in order to do my usual job of editing
the Festival newsletter - this year called FeStIves. |
The weather and mud proved a major obstacle to the
set-up. The craning-in of display boats (both the floating ones and the
land display ones) ran about a day longer than expected, mainly because of the
difficulty of moving the trailer lorries and the big crane around the site.
Huge amounts of metal tracking were laid.
The big excitement on Thursday was when the loose
stones at the edge of the one stone-surfaced track decided they wouldn't take
the weight (78 tons or so) of the big crane that had just finished lifting the
boats. The crane was stranded at some nasty angle from the vertical. They had
to bring in three other cranes to get it back onto solid ground before it could
leave the site. Our team were runners-up in the quiz on Thursday evening by a
team led by Jim Shead, with superior local knowledge.
A plan was been announced for Friday to get the
remaining traders onto their pitches by parking their vehicles on the track-way
round the perimeter of the site and getting as big an army of volunteers as
possible to carry all their stock manually from the vehicles to the stands.
People turned out in numbers to achieve this, and all was completed. The local
weather forecast had been promising for several days that the end of the rain
was imminent, but it didn't come until tea-time on Friday. The EA dropped the
level of this reach of the river by five or six inches to lower the water-table
and help the water drain off the site. I'm not sure how much inconvenience that
gave to any of the boats.
Given the problems of getting there, from floods to
collapsing railway bridges, there was a surprisingly good turn-out of 340
boats. The camp-site was even bigger, with about 400 units, some of whom
originally planned to come by boat and changed their plans in the face of the
difficulties en route.
Saturday was the first public day. The delays in the
set-up meant that the show opened slightly late - only about half an hour - and
there was an excellent turn-out of visitors, despite the continuing muddiness
underfoot. But during the day the ground was visibly drying out under the
strong sunshine. For the official opening, the VIP party arrived by boat,
escorted by a flotilla of small steamboats. One amusing sight was the official
boat backing into a crunch with one of the steamboats while manoeuvring into
its mooring. This was closely followed by the site of the ladies of the VIP
party changing into their wellies on the landing stage.
At the opening ceremony, IWA national Chairman, John
Fletcher referred back to his speech the year before launching the campaign
against the DEFRA cuts. This year he pointed out that the Ministers concerned
had been moved, and of Barry Gardiner he remarked "Never has a relegation
been more deserved". He saw better prospects for an understanding with the
new ministerial team, with whom he was about to have a meeting to discuss the
"future architecture of waterways funding". After John's speech, the
event was opened by Baroness Barbara Young, Chief Executive of the Environment
Agency, whose speech included a plea for continued integrated management of the
rivers - not difficult to de-code as "Don't hand over our navigation
responsibilities to BW".
That evening brought an Old Time Music Hall, with Guy
Morgan as Chairman, and Glen & Bruce Peckett, Dave Green and myself (all
well-known to waterways intenet regulars) among the participants. That was
followed by a Folk Club, starring Bruce Peckett and a group called Isambarde.
The site-crew were up before the sparrows on Sunday
laying plastic sheeting covered with wood chips to create dry walkways around
the site. That day's turn-out of visitors was huge - the queues at the
pay-gates seemed to last for ever and Security said they couldn't take the cash
fast enough to wherever it had to be taken.
Sunday evening's entertainments included another Folk
Club session - this time a "come-all-ye" in which Bruce Peckett (again) and
Anne Coleman were among the performers. They had a lot to contend with from
loud music from a rather good Irish folk band in the main bar next door. At one
stage the Irish band included that traditional Irish ethnic instrument the
didgeridoo. That evening also brought the procession of illuminated boats,
which, contrary to early indications, had a good turn-out of boats — or so
I'm told, we were still in our portacabin printing the next day's newsletter at
the time.
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By Monday the site had dried out almost completely,
although bits of it were still a bit spongy. Once again we had a good turn-out
of the public (although not as good as the day before). That day also saw the
big annual fair in the town, but the two events seemed to support each other
rather than compete. In fact the town had been extremely supportive throughout,
with lots of local businesses providing sponsorship. One of the local
policewomen patrolling the site remarked to me how pleasant the atmosphere in
the town had been for the previous few days with all our boaters and campers
around the place. It seemed to some of us that holding the Festival right on
the edge of a smallish town worked very well. I particularly welcomed the fact
that the town centre was only about ten minutes' walk from my porta-cabin, so
could easily pop in there for a bit of shopping, or for a pub lunch during the
set-up days before the on-site caterers were in business.
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