Jim at the Spudfest

Having made lots of European friends over the years, I often see them on facebook celebrating a local festival of some kind. Usually these involve music, plenty of alcohol, maybe a funfair or carnival, and definitely lots of fun and laughs. Today the little town that I just moved to had its version... the Comber Potato Festival! Henceforth known as Spudfest.

To be fair to them, they are celebrating the fact that the local potatoes (called Comber Earlies) have been given EU Protected Geographical Indication status, the kind of status also awarded to champagne, Scotch whisky, parma ham etc. So it isn't just a random celebration of spuds, we're not that Irish :)

I was wandering around the festival thinking that there really wasn't much to blip (a 'guess the potato variety' competition was the highlight), when I noticed someone calling me over. I realised that it was a local church minister that I had a good old chat with at a wedding last week. He introduced me to the guy he was talking to, Jim Fletcher, who is on the organising committee for the festival and also happens to be my local councillor. So I got an official welcome to the town!

As I left I snapped a quick shot of him beside a photo of some Comber potatoes. The music was very loud so I don't think he really heard what I was saying or knew what I was doing, which probably accounts for the slightly confused face :)