June 1st 2013 Amesbury Carnival

Once again a fantastic celebration of Wiltshire community life, a good day out for people of all ages and backgrounds and a testament to the year long efforts of carnival committee for making this happen. We took part again, this being our third year and we were blessed by being joined in procession this time by the simply awesome Pentacle Drummers from Sussex.

They were absolutely ‘loud’ and full of bright energy as ever.

The Stonehenge games were contested by the Druids, Scouts and Guides, and two teams from the Pentacle drummers who won just by a combination of good teamwork and the most creative cheating in the final (when there are no rules) but credit must be given to the Scouts and Guides who despite a stronger showing by the Druids this year still beat us into last place and only narrowly lost the title which they won last year.

It is events like the Carnival that whilst maybe taken for granted sometimes, make memories for young people that forge a link between themselves and a place that is very special. A community with living culture isn’t just somewhere you live for a while before moving on, it’s somewhere you belong to your whole life, return to and call home and fight for so that the next generation have something wonderful to experience also.

The procession starts to form up at Holders Road sports centre

Above: the amazing Pentacle Drummers.

Right: To make the day even more special, Aes Dana Grove were awarded a trophy by the Carnival. We’ld like to think that it was awarded for being the best looking druids in the county (and that’s what we might tell people) but actually we believe it was for being the most amusing procession entry. We were considered the most amusing entry probably because Franks Van (which we had planned to use for lazy transport) had broken down and we had to walk it instead...Franks misery at having to walk was so apparent that we won the trophy.

After the procession, awards ceremony, Stone-age games and enjoying the fun-fair and some of the amazing and entertaining arena events at the carnival, several of our grove and the Pentacle Drummers decided to enjoy the last bit of the day relaxing at Avebury. We apologise for the number of sheep pictures but Frank and the youngsters decided to see who could get the best sheep portrait...

Seen enough sheep yet?

We lost the others and had to search until we caught the distant rumble of drums on the breeze...

Happy days :-)