The Caterpillar

In happier times, Kendal had a Torchlight Procession around town, traditionally on the Friday after County Show day. But even before Covid caused last years event to be cancelled, there had been changes to try and keep the format alive after it had looked in danger of dying out completely. The date was moved nearer to the end of September and the the “procession” became a “carnival” with events taking place over the whole weekend.
This year there were to be no closed roads and procession of floats, instead there were several walking processions finishing in different places, obviously to try and spread the crowds around the town. Then there were musical and performance acts throughout Saturday, culminating in the lighting of fire sculptures last night in a nod to the “torchlight” part of the tradition.
But we were out in Manchester on Friday night and busy most of the day yesterday so missed all of the fun. So it was not until we strolled into town for our coffee this morning that we had a chance to see some of the display that had been created in Abbot Hall Gardens. I think the idea was that you would wander amongst these giant insects as if you were an ant. Probably something that was better experienced at night with everything lit up and people out enjoying themselves, than on a grey Sunday morning with only a handful of people about. I’m hoping that we might be able to get back to the full procession around the town next year, but still keep all these other activities over the weekend.
And apart from that walk into town this morning, it’s been a fairly quiet day. But I am grateful for that because I know that there is another busy week ahead…