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Until now I've always felt slightly impatient reading blogs which start apologising for not having blogged for a while. But now I have to do just that. And I have a lot more understanding for the poor blogger. Life just keeps getting in the way... Well, not life as such - more like Festival, which has taken over my life. There are only two weeks to go and I seem to have lost the ability to string sentences together, so I offer you a list instead, derived from a little period of reflection in between hours of concentrated pandemonium:
Lessons learned about putting on a community festival
1) Village Halls are great for a great many things, except for evening meetings with volunteers. Meetings are better attended and more productive in pubs. It does seem very obvious now I've written that down
2) Communication is everything, and everything is communication: as soon as people feel someone else knows something, and they don't, they can too easily decide that that 'something' isn't meant for them
3) Dog shows are very popular
4) Family members will need many treats and trips once the festival is over. My mother has cut out 100 brown-paper leaves to decorate a Gruffalo scarecrow, my father is driving to Walsall to bulk buy onions for the onion-peeling contest, my sister led a community choir rehearsal only a few days after returning from honeymoon; my 2 year old attended a 2 hour meeting at Daventry District Housing; my husband has driven to Devon and back to collect books donated by our festival patron, William Trevor... I owe them all, big-time.
5) Braunston is full of very kind, generous and creative people. Thank you singers, scarecrow-makers, traffic management advisors, nature specialists, bread-makers, marquee-putter-uppers, miracle-workers, sign-painters, musicians and everybody else who has helped so much already....
