This bank holiday weekend saw us in Oxfordshire for the 46th annual Towersey Village Festival. Towersey is more than a weekend event and certainly a lot more than a village fete.
Running from the 26th of August until the 30th of August, it has over 300 events in 69 hours over 5 days in one beautiful village. You can arrive for lunch on the Thursday and stay for breakfast on the following Tuesday morning.
For more information on this festival and details of how you can join in the fun next year, please visit their webpage.
We hadn't planned to open our stall at this festival and were originally booked into trading at Festinho up in Bedfordshire. Due to our being totally dissapointed in our original booking, we were really fortunate to be able to secure a stall at Towersey at the last minute. It was the first time for such a last minute schedule change for us, but one that proved worthwhile as we were certainly made to feel part of the celebrations and festival in Towersey.
There was a vast array of workshops for festival goers to get stuck into. Ranging from clog dancing and morris dancing to yoga and musical instruments, even circus skills.
The weather wasn't particularly kind over the Thursday and Friday, but the weather over the weekend was bright enough to dry up some of the thick mud. As murphy's law would have it, Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful clear day, making sure tents and marquees were packed away dry.
Sorazora was part of the International market place were we were happy to meet up with fellow traders with whom we had traded at previous festivals and also there was ample chance to make new connections and friendships with new traders. A couple of new friends who deserve a mention are Larry from the Golden Fleece Trading Company who had a fine selection of fleeces and Moroccan crafts and Sinja Streuper with her beautiful selection of African arts and crafts (currently no website available!).
Apart from the International Market there was also a crafts marquee and musical instruments marquee. Fine foods could be found throughout the site. One particular favourite would have to be the Belgium Waffle stall. Another aspect well worth a mention were the three funky grandmothers who circled the site on their adapted Segways. (pictured below).
We thoroughly enjoyed this festival and would recommend it highly and would like to thank the festival organisers for their help in making us welcome at such short notice. Let's hope we have the opportunity to trade there in 2011 also.