Bridgwater Carnival Concerts

As well as the big Carnival processions that happen across Somerset and the South West in the autumn, there's a stage spectacular that takes place every night for the first two weeks of October.

 

Down in Bridgwater in Somerset, all the Carnival clubs based in the town have to put on a show - which is made up of roughly 10 minutes for each club (and there are about 13 of them) plus lots of "front of curtain" acts between each club's show. The Carnival Concerts have been runing since 1884 and the idea is that each club presents a small taster of what you'll see on their float come Bridgwater Carnival day on Saturday 2nd November.

 

We went along last Wednesday night - there were some amazing performances, singers and dancers, and also some not-so-amazing performances, singers and dancers. Although to be fair, there was no-one really bad!
With a cast of over 600 people on stage each night, the show ends up being 4 hours long, thankfully with an interval but starting at 7pm and finishing just after 11pm (with an hour long drive home) means a very late night.

 

I feel like this post is a bit of an anticlimax as there was no photography allowed during the show, so I haven't actually got any pictures of the performers to show you. When Bridgwater Carnival day rolls around (and the other processions during November), I'll share some of the photos and try and capture some of the atmosphere for anyone who's never heard of our fab illuminated Carnival processions in the South West.

 

As a quick intro though, I'll leave you with the official TV advertisement for Bridgwater's procession...

 

 

 

 

The Midweek Hop - Autumnal Delights

The other half's guest post - three music videos on a theme...
(inspired by Desmond Carrington's 'The Music Goes Round')

'Ami Continental 2' 1962 Jukebox

 

 

This weeks theme is...Autumnal Delights

 

 

Inspired by the fact that we're now well and truly in autumn!

 

 

1. Autumn Almanac by The Kinks


Yes, yes, yes, The Kinks perfectly capture British life in the autumn.
'Autumn Almanac' entered the chart on 18th October 1967 reaching Number 3.

2. Forever Autumn by Justin Hayward


A classic from Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds' soundtrack.
'Forever Autumn' entered the chart on 8th July 1978 reaching Number 5.

3. Autumn Leaves by Nat King Cole


So much fun walking through and kicking up the fallen leaves!
'Autumn Leaves' is an old song but was covered by Nat King Cole for the title theme to the film 'Autumn Leaves' in 1956. 



Happy listening!

What's In My Freezer?

Does anyone else find that autumn ends up being "eat the freezer" season?

 

 

We seem to have a freezer jam-packed with tubs, cartons and packets, so much so that the other week when we spotted some reduced priced cakes in our local Tesco, we couldn't fit them in the freeezer and just had to eat them all instead (what a shame...).

 

I've seen lots of "What's In My Bag?/What's In My Purse?" type posts so I wondered if anyone would be interested in a twist on a theme - a "What's In My Freezer?" post. Feel free to tell me that no, that's deadly boring!

 

Anyway, my freezer is actually two freezers - one fridge freezer bought when we moved into our first house and one small freezer we inherited from Andrew's nan when she moved to a nursing home. Having two freezers is both good and bad, it's great for cheap offers and multipacks but not so good for actually remembering what you've got. Cue finding boxes of last year's blackberries, unidentifiable mince and small tubs of who-knows-how-many egg whites.

 

 

 

At the weekend I decided to do a big stock take - and umm...yep...we do seem to have enough food to cope with a nuclear war or mass epidemic.

So...deep breath, I hold my hand up and say "my name's Louisa and I'm a frozen food hoarder".

 

 

My freezers currently contain...

 

Meat/Fish: chicken breasts, 9 tubs of sausages (with 4 in each tub, a total of, umm, 36 bangers), 6 pork steaks, smoked haddock, bacon slices, 4 tubs of pork (or possibly beef) mince, beef burgers, turkey burgers, 2 chicken and gravy pies and 2 packets of pancetta.

 

Vegetables: leaf spinach, brussels sprouts (leftover from Christmas), chargrilled peppers, mediterranean vegetables, green beans, spring greens, chopped leek and sweetcorn.

 

Fruit/Desserts/Cake: 6 tubs of strawberries, 3 tubs of blackberries, cranberries, mango pieces, raspberries, bag of mixed fruit, 2 mini coca cola ice lollies, banana cake, 3 tubs of double cream and one large tub of extra thick double cream.

 

Bread/Pastry: puff pastry, shortcrust pastry, bake at home ciabatta, square wraps, tortilla wraps, pitta bread, bagels, one quarter of a garlic baguette, tub of breadcrumbs and 2 tubs of mini sausage rolls.

 

Everything Else: black pudding slices (are they classed as meat?), Quorn mince, Quorn chicken pieces, 2 tubs of homemade roasted beef and tomato soup, an un-named number of egg whites,

a thermometer and a glow stick (if you put them in the freezer, it reactivates the chemicals).

 

 

 

That's not a lot, surely!?

 

I feel like a could host a dinner party for lots of people - anyone fancy popping round?

 

 

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...

 

Laughing - at funnyman Andrew Lawrence at Komedia in Bath. It was the second time we've seen him and he was just as good as the first. He talks to the crowd a lot and the whole show rambles from one thing to another but he's great fun and well worth seeing if he's anywhere near you.

Watching - this week was Gillingham (in Dorset, not the one in Kent) Carnival. It was a lovely warm night and one of the charity shops in the high street was selling tea, coffee, soup and delicious homemade cakes.

Decorating - more building work, more trips to B&Q and Wickes, more mess upstairs...


Sorting - out my wardrobe, giving my clothes a bit of a spring (autumn?) clean.
Me and my lovely friend M are off to Jen's (My Make Do and Mend Year) swishing event in Warminster a week Friday so I've now got several things put aside to take along!


Collecting - my latest purchase from Asda. A bra and pants set with fairground rides on!
Is that taking my love of fairgrounds a bit too far, do you think?

 

What did you get up to at the weekend?
 

Why I Love Autumn

I've lost count of the number of blog posts I've seen saying how amazing Autumn is - the colours of the leaves, the snuggly jumpers, the hot chocolate, the bonfires, the cable knit tights, etc, etc. etc.

 

And yes, I do like all those things as well (especially the hot chocolate),
but the real reason I love Autumn is this...

 

 

And this...

 

 

 

And this...

 

 

That is...Carnival!

Source: all pictures are my own - either shot by me or my team of 3 merry photographers
(i.e. Andrew and my mum and dad)
 

 

South West England's annual illuminated Carnival season (down here it has a capital 'C') really is our best kept secret, which is suprising considering Bridgwater Carnival procession is reputed to be the largest illuminated Carnival in the world. There's thousands and thousands of people involved with it all across the South West and Bridgwater and Glastonbury Carnivals regularly attract around 150,000 spectators.

 

 

I'll try and do a quick summary...

 

Bridgwater Carnival has its roots back in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot (one of the men involved was from a nearby village) and the townsfolk celebrated his failure to blow up the Houses of Parliament every year with bonfires and entertainment. By 1881 this had turned into a formal procession through the town with people on the back of carts in silly costumes. Since then it's developed year on year with lots and lots of other towns in the South West holding their own processions from August to December.

 

There's over 100 Carnival clubs across the South West, with members of all ages plus lots of people who take part individually without being in a club. Each club chooses a different theme every year (keeping it a secret until the Autumn) and builds a Carnival float depicting that theme to enter whichever processions they like. Some clubs enter 20 or so parades, some only do a few. Each entry can be up to 100ft long, 16ft high and 11ft wide and can be as technical or arty as you like. There's no grants or funding, everything is built by the club members fundraising throughout the year - and with some entries costing in excess of £50,000 to build, that's a lot of fundraising!

 

Entries are judged (I've done my stint this year judging), there's plenty of trophies and prize money on offer and it's a great way of making friends with a fair amount of booze being drunk as well. 

 

And the reason everyone does it (as well as the buzz you get from performing to huge crowds), is all to raise money for charity. Collectors go round the crowd at each procession and people donate to whatever the chosen causes are that year.

 

Ahh, sorry, that wasn't a very quick summary!

(there is a lot more to it, but I don't want to bore you all senseless)

 

 

 

I went along to watch Carnivals (usually more than 10 a year) from 1987 to 2003 taking lots of photos.

In 1999 I decided to start my own photography website showcasing the entries from those Carnival processions and that's my other project - I still run, take, edit and organise the website now -

its called 'Somerset and Wessex Carnival Photographs'.

 

I joined a Carnival club in 2004 and that was actually how I met Andrew (there's been many a marriage made in Carnival land). I performed on the float each year as well as running my website, although nowadays I take a back seat to some of our younger members when it comes to performing.

That's me, on the top right-hand side, wearing a red dress... 
 

 

I absolutely love Carnival season (you can probably tell by how much I've rambled in this post) and I'd love more people to come and experience a November illuminated procession. There is nothing quite like it, until you've seen it, you can't imagine the heat of 40,000 light bulbs passing in front of you; the energy and enthusiasm of 30+ performers on a moving float or the sound of an amazing piece of music heard from over a mile away. On a Carnival night in Somerset, even the night sky is aglow with the reflection of hundreds of thousands of light bulbs!

 

There's lots of smaller (but still impressive) Carnivals from August to October, but the seven really big ones start on Saturday 2nd November at Bridgwater, move to Burnham on Sea, Weston Super Mare, North Petherton, Shepton Mallet, Wells and finish at Glastonbury on Saturday 16th November.

Visit Somerset Carnivals for a full list of dates and times.

 

 

Wrap up warm (the procession will take over 2 hours to pass), get there early (along with the other 150,000 people) and bring lots of change (it's all for charity don'tcha know!) 

 

See you there!

 

 

Bridgwater's Historic Charter Fair

Last Friday evening me and Andrew, plus associated parents and my brother all trundled down to Bridgwater Fair. Although the trip didn't end quite how we planned (see here for why!) most of the evening was great fun, even if we did have to squeeze through the billions of people who'd decided to go to the fair.

 

 

 

Bridgwater Fair is held annually on the town's St Matthews Field with the street leading up to the fair filled with market stalls, catering vans and fortune tellers selling all sorts of oddities, and all open til 10pm.

 

 

 

 

The fair is a Charter Fair, which means that back in 1249 King John granted the town of Bridgwater the right to hold a fair every year on a certain date. Back then it would've consisted of things like a cattle market and games and entertainment.

 

 

 

 

It looks a bit different nowadays!

 For the four days its on, its the South West's largest funfair and is hosted by the Showmens Guild (Western Section) with modern and traditional fairground rides from lots of different fairground families.

 

 

 

 

There's lots of other Charter fairs around the UK; places like Nottingham Goose Fair, Kirkcaldy Links Market, Warwick Mop and Hull Fair and they're usually much bigger than your average travelling fair.

Google 'Charter Fair UK' and see if there's one near you!

 

The Midweek Hop - Start Singing The Blues

The other half's guest post - three songs (and their YouTube videos) on a theme...
(inspired by Desmond Carrington's 'The Music Goes Round')

 

 

'Wurlitzer 1400' 1951 Jukebox


 

This weeks theme is...Start Singing The Blues

 

 

Inspired by well, we've probably all seen and heard about America and their financial/governmental problems -
so here's three songs celebrating the USA's glory days.

 

 

1. American Pie by Don McClean


Wouldn't we all drive our chevy to the levee?
'American Pie' entered the chart on 22nd January 1972 reaching Number 2. 

2. American Woman by Guess Who


Is the American women they're referring to, the Statue of Liberty?
'American Woman' entered the chart on 9th May 1970 reaching Number 45, and later that same month reached Number 19.

3. Living in America by James Brown


A bit late for a jukebox classic (although James Brown was a jukebox artist), but the song sums up the American dream!
'Living in America' entered the chart on 25th January 1986 reaching Number 5.



Happy listening!