The Longney School Féte

16th June 2007

What a fantastic day.

Months of preparation and planning came together on the day to bring two and half hours of old fashioned fun and entertainment to hundreds of people who attended.

The traditional stalls of burgers and coconut shy, white elephant and face painting, skittles and plants surrounded the central ring where early in the day medieval re-enactment enthusiasts demonstrated the many layers of garments necessary for a knight to go into battle. Later they performed a few fights with no holes barred, much to the delight of the children who now watched in their dozens. The astonishment for those with keen eyes was to find one was the others wife.

Parents and children alike spent the afternoon ambling around the fete, profiting from a spell of settled weather until the last minutes. Excitement broke out with the first of the competitions.

Tug-of-war. I for one had long forgotten the delight of hearing so many children having so much innocent fun, as they continuously provided more and more contestants to pitch against each other.

Next came the egg throwing contest where the excitement spread into the crowds as they looked on in disbelief as smart girls and boys with beaming faces became covered in egg yoke .

Lastly the highlight, if it could be separated from everything else, was the custard pie race. Teams were drawn up to run, collect a pie of cream and proceed on to throw it at a fellow team member, at this point I have to say yuk, but they loved it. Returning time and again to land another on the face or head of their best friend. (A lesson here for the adults for conflict handling perhaps).

Actions, archery, football, tea rooms, bar, guess the birthday of the donkey and numerous inventions to whittle money for pleasure provided a generous total for the schools bank account.

I look forward to next year and ask that there be a few of those races for the parents.