Distant Drums

The Westmorland County Show is traditionally held on the second Thursday in September. Since 1970, a torchlight procession around Kendal took place on the Friday night after the show. Colourful floats, marching bands and vintage vehicles making their way round the town whilst the populace watched - mainly from outside the pubs, it must be said! It almost died off in the mid 2010s but was resurrected by a new team, moved to the end of September and made into a two day festival, in the hope of attracting more support.
This was to be the 50th anniversary year but for obvious reasons there can be no procession this year. The organisers are nothing if not inventive though. They have filmed a “virtual torchlight”, using models, to be shown tonight and this afternoon there was a convoy of specially made large sculptures going round town. I had hoped to see something of the latter, but a clashing gym session meant I only heard a burst of drumming on a nearby estate.
Our theatrical society entered a float on several occasions, usually as a way of plugging our upcoming pantomime. There was supposed to be a theme for each years procession, but we could usually find a way of interpreting it to suit our own ends!
It was always great fun - usually alcohol fuelled - but a combination of it being down to the same select few to actually build the float along with ever more stringent Health and Safety requirements, meant that enthusiasm to enter a float gradually dwindled away. As mentioned above, we were not alone in feeling that way, leading to the procession almost disappearing from the calendar. Thankfully the new team in charge are committed to it continuing and we’re all hoping it will be back to normal next year.
The picture is of our entry in 2008. The Panto we were promoting was Snow White and the Eight Dwarves (don’t ask!), but I believe the theme was something like “All Roads Lead to Kendal”, hence the signpost.
Must have done something right though as I seem to recall we won an award. Not that we’d hung around to collect it - we were back up town in the nearest pub five minutes after the procession ended!