discovery day belper

sunday 28 october. it was cold and ulitmately wet, but that doesn't matter right now.

the celebrations were centred on the belper river gardens where various activities informative stalls and folk friendzy entertained.

with some friends we took in the wool based activities in the north mill. i sat down next to a lady i'd never met before and within moments i was making a pom pom and having a really lovely chat with her.  

folk friendzy's second performance of the day was in the river gardens near the swiss tea rooms.  braving the rain we strode out into the gardens to discover the troupe in the bandstand. despite the rain they were still going to perform.

something then quite unexpected happened. a lady in a green top arrived and we were hastily introduced to her and she started into a monologue about her dad and the east mill.  i think the lady is an actress from belper, possibly last seen in belper at the short play festival.

her piece began as a quite lovely account of things to do with the mill and working there.

as it progressed it twisted and turned and became about contemporary community and use of cars.   i noted that the piece was telling us that people don't form into community so often now as it had been in the past.  something that i thought was a little misplaced with folk friendzy as an audience as they effortlessly promote community. the performance continued and finished.

we then watched the girls adapt their dances to the band stand.  the rain poured down and under cover i watched the dance out develop a special atmosphere from seeing something that hadn't been intended to happen. well done to all involved.