Displays

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A fun and interesting long weekend - camping from Thursday to Sunday.

Lots of good times - dancing on the big stage in the sunshine, fish and chips, Beltane workshop, discovering the wonders of Mike (Fingers) McDaid, discussing belly dancing, dancing in the bustling Market Place, Demon Barber Roadshow, eating a communal tub of ice cream with spoons........ Minkey and Mokey enjoyed being babysat by the little stage in the Fairy Dance and chatting to little dogs.

A few down times - finding a tent had pitched partly UNDER the Cox caravan on our jam-packed noisy campsite, one wilderness of a dance venue, the disappointment of a wetter than wet start to Sunday.

Some really really funny moments for some of us but not for others: Jess's collapsing bed, Hazel's 'extensive' Scrabble vocabulary (e.g. grond), ants that invading the Brunier caravan, Jess's communal shower, Thierry's sneaky shower at home while collecting ant powder, Sid & Lynda's lunch still at the Little Stage in the middle of the night, Lissa running into the black bollard with her violin case, Josh stealing Hazel's tatter coat, Josh stealing Jess's tatter jacket, Ben's jumping lunch on Saturday and Ben forgetting his sandwiches on Sunday... Others are mentioned in the commentary under the photos below - like sitting down dancing with Beltane and Josh's splinter...

Would we do it all again? YES because we had loads of fun and got lots of compliments and positive comments!!

Our dancers and musicians were Ben, Sally, Sid, Simon, Jess, Josh, Lisa, Sue, Lynda, Thierry, Alan, Lissa and Hazel, and Mokey and Minkey of course!

Many thanks to
* Jenny Newson for coordinating all the dance displays and many other things at Bunkfest
* Stuart Emmerson, professional photographer, volunteer Bunkfest photographer, who sent us some lovely photos to share with you on this page. His photos are individually credited below. His own website is http://www.stuartemmerson.co.uk/
* Jess for sending on photos she and others took on the Cox camera
* the many photographers who used the Brunier camera during the weekend

On Friday, we all watched Ben and Alan put up Ben's tent.	Oooh we did larf when they needed the instructions! In the evening we all went to the ceilidh on the sports pavilion on site, the band was Hekety with caller Ian Nichols. James Harrison made a guest appearance for a while which was lovely for us. And for him!
The first dancing spot was 11:00 at the Market Place with Plum Jerkum (Border Morris from Warwick). It went well.	There was a reasonable sized and very appreciative crowd.
We danced Noughts and Crosses and Go Mauve at this venue.	Here we are doing Elbows - well, some of us are!
Here we are doing the Hey - see how calm and peaceful Sid looks - but don't be fooled...	... he isn't too fond of Lisa taking his photo!!
We did synchronised double rapper at all 8 venues over the weekend. Very nearly synchronised mostly and utterly synchronised sometimes.	The border dances we did over the weekend were Lumbawakk's Jacobs Ladder, to the tune La Ride number 6, Lumbawakk's Noughts & Crosses to the tune Star of the County Down, Lumbawakk's Go Mauve to the tune Go Mauve (Ian Luff) and Lumbawakk's Fairy Dance to the tunes King of the Fairies and the Fairy Dance. During our rapper dances Alan and Hazel played Lass of Killiecrankie Scattery Island New Rigged Ship Willow Express (Chris Shaw) Sweets of May
Next - we pootled off to the Comrades Club car park ready for our spot. Just off the busy and bustling Market Place is this quiet spot where we were the audience for Royal Oak Cotswold and Rose Hips Belly. Stuart Emmerson sent this photo through to us. Many thanks Stuart.	At 12:00 we danced to Off the Rails Appalachian on the South wall and they danced to us on the West wall.
	Here's part of a Stuart Emmerson photo - I've zoomed in on the monkeys having a lovely time. Stuart seems like a nice bloke. We had a good chat with him. He had an orange wristband because he was a photographer, while we had silver and white ones because we were performers camping.
Stuart Emmerson took this photo too. And the one on the right. Proper arty isn't it, doing rapper with the rooftops of the town behind us. The angle emphasises that it's a sword dance. He certainly has an eye for a good shot, doesn't he?
This is a Stuart Emmerson photo too.	Jess snapped the snapper - here's Stuart Emmerson in action! I feel we should point out that it is not his red handbag.
And here's the very photo Stuart Emmerson was snapping when he got snapped by Jessica!	Josh suffered a terrible injury in the Comrades car park - a splinter which only he and Hazel were bothered about. Not that Josh appreciated Hazel's concern one little bit...
This photograph was taken by Jessica Cox, our western wall audience and Lumbawakk's own photographer for this dance. It shows us Stepping Up in the dance Jacobs Ladder. Lynda started off dancing with Sid,... got lost in SquareCrows and...	...ended up dancing with Sally! Excellent. Here's the proof - Lynda walking off with Sally. And luckily for Lynda, noone noticed!
Ben, Alan & Josh all doing a spot of Maths revision in preparation for Ecology, Physics and Maths at university.	They stayed focussed as they ate lunch. Question is - was Josh eating Pi? (ha ha ha bonk!)
Next spot, the Little Stage at 13:00 where our other half was Berkshire Bedlam who charged on and charged off with great style. Unlike us.	Three of our four musicians, Thierry, Alan and Hazel, fought valiantly to be heard above the amplified theatre announcer behind us.
Sticking in Noughts and Crosses entertained a cute group of youngsters on the grass.	Cam in Noughts and Crosses proved no challenge at all on this occasion.
Swirling tatters - especially on Josh's shoulders and Lissa's hips!	At the end of Noughts and Crosses, all the dancers exited the stage behind the musicians as they did a grand final last chord.
The dancing all went well and we felt happy - though our artist friend Linda said we weren't looking happy. We were just concentrating! Paranoically we examined how cheerful other teams looked - and guess what - they looked like they were concentrating too!	One fabulously straight line caught on camera - in the Allemand of our Fairy Dance. Well done to Ben, Sally, Sid, Simon, Jess, Josh, Lisa and Sue. They were probably just scared that Lissa our fiddle player might see them if they went out of line. Lynda took this photo...
Minkey and Mokey grabbed lunch between dances. In the rapper we ran on in two lines, crossing over amazingly well less than a minute after making the decision to try it. Berkshire Bedlam were well impressed but more importantly so was Hazel.	Then we went on to the Beltane Border workshop in the Regal Centre from 14:00 to 15:00. We were awesome.
Beltane were more awesome. They gave permission to dance the dances ourselves.	It was excellent teaching and the hall was full. They taught us two dances in 1 hour.
To finish us off for the day we danced at 15:30 in the Market Place with Whitethorn Ladies NorthWest from London and Devon.	Jess follows Josh's wristband collection very prettily round at the end of Jacobs Ladder.
Saturday night was Chip night - which Thierry got from Didcot after Charlies kebab van disappeared from the industrial estate to a more lucrative spot - the Cross Keys.	After a late night watching the Demon Barber Roadshow, we woke to RAIN, so the Ben&Brunier Breakfast was indoors. Cereal and bacon butties. As sweet revenge on the under-caravan tent-campers, Simon used the Thunderbox cheered on by his family.
Whoopie doo. 12:00. Here we are at our first dancing spot - the Comrades Club. With(out) Hazzaz Belly Dancers from Witney.	We didn't dance. We posed for a quick photograph looking really warm and happy... Someone had better wake Lisa up.
Then we went indoors. Some played a game. Bar billiards. Alan and Hazel played in Mike McDaid's BRILLIANT Irish-ish session and were sad to have to leave to go and dance outside.	Stuart Emmerson, professional photographer, took this photo. Thank you Stuart.He was one of a few volunteer photographers at Bunkfest. Notice how much better his composition is than Hazel's photo on the left which has green chairs, wet cagoule and Lynda!!
Our 13:00 spot was on the drenched Little Stage, so we danced in the Beer tent without Sabotage from Cirencester. Our audience was Beltane and a few others including young Benton lad. It stopped raining. Whoo hoo.	Thierry's tattoo for the weekend - which he went to work with on Monday because he forgot to scrub it off!
Our 14:00 spot was with Wicket Brood. It was supposed to be in the alley outside the Dolphin, but there was a session on in there, so we chatted to the landlord and decided to dance in the much better but untimetabled venue - the Market Place. Don't know what Jenny Newson would have said?!? Perhaps she'll never find out...	After lunch dancing on the wall to Beltane in the car park of Despair, we walked to the Kinecroft, where these two little dogs had a nice chat with Mokey and Minkey.
15:00 We danced with Wild Hunt who are really rather good to watch. Now that's a team who really do look serious when they dance. Wonder what Linda Benton thinks of them?	Our rapper was good, our border was good. We was well proud of ourselves. And people said nice things...
Tweaks we had been making to Mary Ann and the Breastplate during the weekend really paid off. It was a Smart Display.	Noughts and Crosses sticking.
The above photo shows Elbows in Nought and Crosses and Magic Roundabout is on the right...	We also did Fairy Dance - in the small break for the Hoy an army bloke started a PA announcement encouraging people to stop watching the dance displays to go over for their prize draw. Harumph... Anyway we re-started the music as normal for our dancers to dance off, and played over his announcement!

Finally we met the lovely Dave & Jo with Poppy poodle who chatted with the monkeys. We are hoping Jo will phone us and maybe join us...	We rounded off the weekend watching Borderline and Beltane Border's inspirational displays. Mr Beret Borderline said he didn't want us to get big headed but he thought we were excellent... he's sooooo right! Then we went back to the campsite to strike camp, lift the Cox awning to help it dry, go back to the Big Stage to collect Hazel's cagoule then come home, unpack, do the washing and collapse in a heap for the night... ready to do these photos especially for YOU!! xx