About the event

Every year, the Inland Waterways Association runs a major event during the summer. In 2011, it's at Shobnall Fields, Burton on Trent, on the Trent and Mersey Canal. For the first time for a long while, it will be from the Friday to the Sunday of the last weekend in July, rather than the Late Summer Bank Holiday.

Like a lot of other volunteers, we'll be there for three weeks, starting on Saturday 16th July. Our main contribution will be editing and producing the daily newsletter which is circulated to the boaters, campers and exhibitors at the Festival, starting on the Thursday before.

Disclaimer

Note: this is an entirely personal account of our time helping to set up and run the Festival. It's not an official IWA site; please use the link above for that.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Creeping up on the Festival site

It was only supposed to be a bit showery today, according to the Met Office forecast for Benson, but it’s been persisting down most of the day.

We set off just before nine this morning, and had a brisk, if damp, run to Cleeve, where we spent quite some time refilling the water tank. I’d started a washload of socks on the way down, Sheila being occupied at the back, but realised after the machine had filled that there wouldn’t be enough water to do the rinses. (The wool programme uses a lot, of course.) So I paused it after it had washed, then we restarted it once we were filling.

We got to Goring just after half eleven, and once more had a good choice of mooring. It gave us a chance for a natter with Ken Nelson on Ultima and Thule. Ken told us he’s been persuaded to organise the Historic Wharf at the National, and we heard with interest about what he plans for there. It should be quite spectacular.

Speaking to Elanor later in the day, she mentioned that Mitch Gozna, this year’s WRG camp leader, is planning to do food from Friday night this weekend, as part of the pre camp fencing session, so I’ve dropped her an email to confirm that we will be glad to partake. Previous years, catering has only been available from the Saturday lunch, so this is a welcome addition.

We only have a short run planned for tomorrow, to Pangbourne Meadow, so it means we don’t have to leave here before I get a chance to get bread and a paper. This saves a wet walk this afternoon, for which I’m grateful. We’ve spent the rest of the time catching up with various computing jobs; the Braidbar Quiz is in its final form, hopefully.

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