Sunday 25 November 2012

Dickensian Weekend again today

We had a fantastic day yesterday with a great turn out from the local community dressed up with great care and detail in Dickensian outfits ; performers playing and acting in many places around the town along with workshops for children. The streets were packed with perhaps even more people involved than ever before.

A great credit to the organisation  of the event -  Peter Winston - as in previous years.

Yes the local shop keepers may have viewed the crowds with envy when the crowds didn't enter their shops as all the action was to be found in the streets. Surely shopkeepers can take the view that having brought so many people into the town they will have had a good time and will return in the future to a town where there is so much energy and good will.

And now we have another full day ahead of us and the heavy rain is well in the past and is moving away with sun to appear as the day progresses.

Here's the program for today: http://www.dickensianfestival.co.uk/entertainment.sun.htm
and here are the activities for today: http://www.dickensianfestival.co.uk/features.sun.htm

11 comments:

Jimmy J said...

How is Dickfest good for the town? Massive street congestion aint good. Not good for the "special" shops coz nobody goes in, Maybe they dont want financial advice, a carpet, a second hand sofa or a pound of nails. Probably coz all the useful stuff is on the stalls and the money paid for it will bugger off to Penrith, Kendal and all the other shitholes these stalls come from. No change there then, its where our rates go and probably the rent for the stalls too.

No, Dickfest for me sums up all that is wrong with Ulverston - its imagined/invented/artificial "heritage and character" so beloved of offcomers and the KUS delusionals. I just thank God its practically over and I'll be able to move on my own street!

Geoff Dellow said...

It's sad , very sad, that we've got these kind of people living with us in Ulverston and often frequenting this blog.

They find it difficult being positive about anything.

They still see people like me as "offcomers" even though I've been here well over fifty years, longer than many of them have even been alive here. Meanwhile people I've been working hard to put so much time and money into our town in a way that will never be recognised by them. Let's see I have spent well over £100,000 in 1980s money - the Oxfam building - on the town and some 31 year working hard at over 12 hours a day sometimes seven days a week - 4years in the sixtyies at 12 hours, six days a week,20 years in the seventyies and eightyies at an average of 14 hours six days a week and in this century seven years at an average of 10 hours a day six days a week - and I'm supposed to be retired.

Not that that will cut any ice with your kind of person. Take yourself off to Nowhere and run some innocent people down and try to make them feel bad. You won't succeed here.

Geoff Dellow said...

So how is "Dickfest" good for the town:

The cadets are £500 pounds better off - what they raised for themselves by running one car park - at the Health Centre. Hundreds - thousands? - thoroughly enjoyed themselves, many local charities had their funds topped up by thousands, many people took some extra cash home - people who work here - the guy with the Donkeys for instance - money they will now spend, thus enabling others to earn a bit more themselves - and the downside? - The rest of us have to endure rubbish - verbal diarhoea farting out of some Jimmy's orifices on this blog.

Anonymous said...

Local lad (Offcomer) Martin Gilbert who told stories at Sefton House had the children spellbound. Its a pity that the welsh import Mr Thomas was performing at the same time.
Well done Sefton house for providing Mr Gilbert the venue.
Grayham Smith was telling stories in Smith and Harrisons, he performs all year round five days a week.
ZORO

Geoff Dellow said...

As it happens, I've just published two of Martin's stories on Youtube as he hadn't managed to do it himself.

See next post.

Jimmy J said...

If £500 was raised for charities then thats good, indisputably! BUT the point remains that the whole weekend is a great metaphor for what restricts Ulverston and its possible future growth and wellbeing.

Thewhole thing is fantasy, made real and reflects the Image that certain elements want to project.

If you removed the idealistic scales from your eyes you would see that YES there are many people in town who think the way I do.

Anonymous said...

Wow! You are ahead of the crowd with your reporting.
ZORO

Roz Fulton said...

Hi Mr Dellow! I am new here so please forgive me if I break any protocols or speak "out of turn"!

I moved to Ulverston 10 months ago from Surrey with my partner Freddie and our two beautiful children Daisy and Otto. Freddie has aspirations to be a poet and so what better place to be than in the Lake District? I am trained in the ethnic arts and am looking to open a small shop here, specialising in sub-Saharan sand sculpture with, hopefully, a sideline in decorative shisha pipes.

May I say that we feel we could not have found a better place than Ulverston and this was confirmed by our first ever Dickensian festival. Tradition and heritage were placed right at the top of the town's priorities and celebrated in true Cumbrian style! True and as you mention, the place has some grumblers but I feel that as time goes on these nonentities will be replaced by those of us who value our town's identity and cultural potential.

I believe our cottage is quite near where you live - perhaps I could pop round to share a cuppa and a few ideas? Believe me Freddie and I are bursting with them, positive ways to enhance an already magical village.

A.R. said...

Jimmy J must be the most miserable git in town. Dickfest is enjoyed by thousands of locals and visitors . If you don't like it bugger off for the weekend !

Geoff Dellow said...

High Roz, yes please drop round, tel 480347, location The Coach House , Union Lane.

If there are protocols on this blog, they must be very vague.

Personally I like people to identify themselves but even then the odd 'Zoro' slips by.

Geoff Dellow said...

Thanks Zoro for the compliment