12 of 12 April 2015
Today was the Derwent Valley Autumn Festival, which is one of the biggest events held in the Valley each year.
The weather forecast wasn’t sensational, but there wasn’t any rain or wind forecast, so we had everything crossed that it would be a nice day. It was a chilly 7 degrees in the morning when we woke up, and by the time Juniordwarf and I arrived at the festival just before 10.00 it was 11 degrees. I wished I’d worn some more layers, as the day’s top was only 15. At least it didn’t rain!
Juniordwarf and I were scheduled to do a half-hour slot on our community radio station’s outside broadcast from the festival at 10.00 but, due to circumstances beyond our control, we ended up doing the whole hour until 11.00 – which is Juniordwarf’s normal timeslot on the radio, but today he’d been looking forward to getting off early and looking round the festival, so he was a bit irritable during the second half hour.
He’d been eyeing off this climbing maze from where we’d been sitting, so that was the first place he went to.
$5 to play for as long as you like, though I’m not sure it means you get to abandon your child there while you go and explore the rest of the festival. Thankfully I had another responsible adult (Juniordwarf’s grandmother) with me, so I could run off and do a couple of things I needed to get done while he was having fun.
There was heaps of stuff to do and see and eat and drink.
We bought chocolate wheel tickets.
We won nothing.
We checked out the local railway society’s display.
Juniordwarf lined up very patiently for a long time to go on this attraction. I know it’s heaps of fun for the kids, but it always seems weird to hand your child over to a complete stranger who then seals them inside an oversized beach ball!
One of the new features of the festival this year was the Taste of the Valley, where local producers talked about their produce. We were treated to a lesson in making beef stock and sauce by the fabulous Ashley from Two Metre Tall.
I thought the raspberries had finished for the season and was pleasantly surprised to find lots of them at Westerway Raspberry Farm’s stall (probably should have taken the picture before I started eating them).
We bought soap from the lovely Veronica from Veronica Foale Essentials and her able assistant Kim, who was SUPER HELPFUL!
Unfortunately I missed out on seeing the snakes this year. They are usually a highlight for me, but we didn’t get there before they packed up.
Just before we started getting ready to leave, Juniordwarf wanted to take the camera for a while. So as a special bonus, here’s 12 of 12 from the festival from Juniordwarf’s perspective (slightly cropped but otherwise as he saw it).
It was interesting to see the things that caught his eye. I think I should let him do this more often!
1 of 12 – That looks pretty good.
2 of 12 – Cute car
3 of 12- Jane from Two Metre Tall in action
4 of 12 – Pat from Tynwald Estate with some of their Wessex Saddleback ham.
5 of 12 – Jam from Westerway Raspberry Farm
6 of 12 – A random festival goer enjoying a Forester Ale from Two Metre Tall
7 of 12 – Veronica and her able assistant Kim and a lot of yummy soap
8 of 12 – Big Red Box
9 of 12 – A very large dog (he cut its nose off)
10 of 12 – Some coats.
11 of 12 – Wandering players
12 of 12 – One of the four entertainment stages
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So helpful.