Festivals - Day 6

Festivals - Day 6

After an evening spent drying all my clothes, costumes, papers and props it was a relief to wake up to some sunshine and I set off feeling quite optimistic.

This time I found a sensible parking space - though still at the wrong end of the field.

In the sunshine it was mayhem - there seemed to be at least a thousand children playing, dancing, watching - trying all sorts of new skills and generally having great fun! It was quite tricky manoeuvering basket and dogs through all the crowds, performers and stalls.

Once at the tipi, I worked out how to increase the size of the entrance to make it easier to get inside - and I had had the sense to bring a large plastic sheet to cover the wet grass and bits of carpet that had had no chance to dry out overnight. Then I discovered how to open the tipi flaps to let some air inside as the day was getting pretty hot.

Before I could set up, the audience was already arriving - all ages from babes-in-arms to the occasional grandparent - and throughout the afternoon, as soon as some people left others came in to take their place. It was non-stop stories for 4 hours! Though I did manage to sneak out with the dogs for 5 minutes - just long enough to find a cup of tea.

Now my efforts with the pre-schoolers really paid off - so many times it was those simple stories that got chosen from the basket - and there were always some toddlers in the audience. As I am becoming more confident at handling the stories so I am finding they really do work for everybody. Pocamondas, The Old Woman and the Piggy, and Turtle of Koka were much in demand and had everybody laughing - even the teenagers. And then I found that, after a simple story or two, many of the toddlers were able to sit and listen to the more difficult ones. Quite clearly they didn't understand everything, but they were prepared to listen.

I am finding a different kind of confidence too... when noisy newcomers interrupted a story, I would simple pause and wait for them to settle down. When some pre-teen girls were dragged away from their friends, they kept on returning to say their goodbyes again and again, with lots of hugs and kisses - and I stopped telling and asked them to leave. When the amplified music suddenly reached intolerable levels, I went out to the music stage to ask the volume to be reduced - and it was.

And... a real confidence booster... there was a teenage boy who had heard me telling last year and now had come specifically to hear me again - he stayed all afternoon. Several other people came because they had heard of me - and many of them came back several times during the afternoon to hear yet another story, despite all the other exciting attractions going on.

So, by home time, I was tired and my throat was sore from competing with all the ambient noise - but I was happy!