On the Saturday had a quick look at the street market, after helping to set up an Art exhibition from the Alrewas Show, and it all looked really fantastic. The whole village was out in force! I have to say though, the most striking thing about Saturday was the knitting which had suddenly sprouted across the village. I noticed on my paper round, and believe me, at that time in the morning it is slightly disconcerting when you are great with a multicoloured array of knitted penguins, bow ties, bunting and poppies, before you have even got past the front of the shops!
Another thing I also really enjoyed was the unveiling of the 101 oddfellows on the front of the village hall. Once again the village was out in force to celebrate this, and it was great to see the end result of the project I had been working on!
On the monday I was playing with fellow members of a county run jazz orchestra called BYJO (Burton Youth Jazz Orchestra) which was a great experience and I enjoyed very much I also enjoyed listening to everybody else who was performing on that occasion, especially Adam Wright Jazz, Sam Garrett and the Barbershop Quartet who once again put out an absolutely pitch perfect performance (did you see what I did there?)
As well as that commitment musically I did a couple of lunch time concerts in the Methodist Church which were great. A fantastic showcase of some of the classical talent within the village, right from people of the young age of 8. It was really inspiring to see how much musical talent there really is in the village.
The final thing which I was involved with is the Graffiti Art Project, ran by the village's very one Jeff Jacks, as well as Fiona Reeve, Sue Williams and Paula Stanley, to name but a few of the faces I saw about over the workshops. The idea was to refresh an area of the bridge by the canal that was previously covered in dirt to something to last as a legacy to do with the Olympics of 2012. This was a great project to get involved with, not least because we ended up painting ourselves more than the walls, as well as the various people who came to admire whilst walking their dogs, and the vast range of artistic styles which you can see of all the different young people from the village who gt involved.
I couldn't talk about the arts festival without summing up the Party In The Park.It really was fantastic. I think it finished to night on exactly the right note and left people feeling truly inspired by the talent and abilities of the people of the village (not the Village People you must understand). With outstanding performances from local bands and artists such as Toxic Crocodiles, The Signs and Sam Garrett, as well as Twisted Cigarette, The Ample Band, Shy Heights and the 20 years standing The Hoovers, it was a great night of fantastic entertainment and there was a really pleasant atmosphere which overtook the playing fields that evening.
I am very much looking forward to the next Alrewas Arts Festival, with so much more to come alongside the fantastic things which we have seen this year. I am also very excited as to what might be happening in the future in terms of the radio and also the Oddfellows Photography group and also a mini Arts Festival in the autumn next year. I am not sure of any details about that, all I know is Jim seems to have some big and amazing plans up his sleeve, and as usual they are going to be spectacular. So I will try and keep you updated with Arts Fest News, as well as the website which is www.alrewas-artsfest.co.uk which is definitey the place to go to check out what is coming up and what is happening with stuff in the future.
once again, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next. I've been Tom Peach
@peachy146
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