Gainsborough Riverside Festival
Fine Sunny day, - warm.
Collected for British Heart Foundation £61.93
Met at the Xtra 09. 45, with view to being involved in the Festival Parade starting at the Old Hall at 10 15 but decided to stay and have breakfast first, and forego the parade. Keith Brown didn’t bring an instrument and Steve didn’t fancy playing piano accordion for half an hour solid, with ten stitches in his left shoulder.
Pre arranged appearance fee of £50 was to be put aside to hire the minibus for next year. In the event we received £60 as one of the Morris dancing teams failed to materialise in strength.
Start at Xtra Breakfast
Sanders Yard 11.15 Ploughjag (followed Tatterfoals who were running early)
8 Jolly Brewers Drink
Market Place 12.30 Ploughjag
Lords Tune from Eamon and songs all around
Whitton’s Gardens 13.30 Ploughjag
Old Hall. 15.00 Ploughjag – unscheduled performance to a good crowd, who were waiting for the Morris teams to sort themselves out. Beautiful setting, excellent performance, and bright sunshine. (Why do we do the Jag in January ?)
Market Place. Ploughjag
Characters
Rag Fool Eamon Greene s
Recruiting Sergeant John Baker s
The Lady Gordon Griffin s
The Horse None
Joe Straw Steve Hindley m
Flash Hatman Keith Brown s
Beelzebub Dave Barlow s
The Doctor Geoff Miller s
Dame Jane Geoff Turner
Besom Betty Geoff Turner
Some stayed to attend the ceilidh and fireworks display, that were to take place in the evening. Some went for a drink, and rest went home.
Sanders and Whitton’s gardens are new areas of the town created by the construction of a Riverside walk from adjacent the Guild Hall (Whitton’s Gardens) to the Trent Bridge. (Sander’s Yard). There were boat trips available on the river, a brewer’s dray drawn by shire horses, street theatre, a Pipe band, stalls all along the riverside walk, and flypasts by both the Avro Lancaster of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and the Red Arrows aerobatic display team.
Unfortunately Geoff Convery was recuperating after an appendectomy, and felt unable to perform as the Recruiting Sergeant, and we were unable to find a replacement for Dave Hoy as the horse. John Baker gallantly stepped in as the Recruiting Sergeant, and we had a ‘Shirgar’. (Missing horse)