Royal Cornwall Show -
The Dance Festival aims to provide a showcase for different traditional dance groups from in and around Cornwall. Four members of the side – Pauline, Kevin, Ashley and Eileen – actually organise and help to run the festival, which lasts for the three days of the Royal Cornwall Show. Cat's Eye danced on the Saturday, in the company of lots of Cornish dancers and an amazing Polynesian group who, dressed in leaves, flowers and coconut shells, completely stole the show. We had no hesitation in accepting their invitation to join them in a dance on stage, but unfortunately we shall never know how elegant and graceful we looked as, despite Emma's best efforts, the video camera chose not to record it for posterity.
The weather was good, the entertainment was good, there was lots of Skinners beer to drink and Ginster's pasties to eat, and if that wasn't enough there was still the whole of the Royal Cornwall Show to see.
We had just 6 dancers for this one, to match against the mighty hordes of Trigg Morris...and there were dozens of 'em! At least they only danced six at a time, like us, except when they showed off by putting two sets up. The only problem arose when it came to getting to the bar, and for some of us it was a thirsty start to the evening!
At Landrake we had an area of road to dance in which was big enough to land a helicopter. At St Germans much of the dancing area had been taken up by a large umbrella, leaving a patch about the size of the kitchen table to dance in...sometimes it's useful just having 6 dancers.
Both Trigg and ourselves had a number of friends and guests with us, so we had a good crowd and, as always with Trigg, a lively music and song session in their own distinctive style.
It was the first weekend of Polperro Festival, and in the company of Jockey Morris from Birmingham we danced at the Crumplehorn, went down the hill for more dancing, pasties and a music session at the Old Millhouse, went back up the hill, processed back down the hill, danced on Big Green, danced at the inner harbour, danced at the outer harbour, then all went back up the hill to the car park and went home to recover!
Despite a horrendous weather forecast it hardly rained at all, and we all had an excellent day out. Thanks as always to Rob Chisman for all his hard work in organising it all.
This one looked like being a washout, but the torrential rain cleared eastwards just in time for us to dance. The pub car park was full when we got there and we were well impressed that so many people had come to see us....sadly it turned out that there was a committee meeting being held in the bar, and most of the members didn't seem to be morris fans!
We did our stuff and were rewarded by a big plate of sausages, bread and some of the best chips ever.
Yet again the weather forecast was dreadful, and true enough we had rain and wind in abundance, but fortunately not as bad as last year when the festival site was flooded out and the festival cancelled. In fact we were remarkably lucky, as on both the Saturday and Sunday we had lovely sunny afternoons for dancing, which we did in the company of Phoenix Morris from Rickmansworth, Oyster Girls from the Isle of Wight, and the local side, Lassington Oak.
It was a cosy compact festival, immaculately organised, with a good variety of bands
to listen to and a large and well-
Those who were brave enough to stay Sunday night were treated to some good bands and also to beer at £1.50 a pint, but paid the price by suffering an overnight storm which turned the campsite exit into a mudslide.....and Ashley owes Martyn a pint and eternal gratitude for towing him out!
Diary 2008 -
