Thursday, April 30, 2009

Clun Green Man Festival

Photo by Sabine J Hutchinson
http://www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk


The Ludlow & Tenbury Wells Advertiser looks forward to the Bank Holiday weekend:

Once again, Clun will host The Green Man Festival, its traditional May Bank Holiday event celebrating the arrival of spring, with outstanding music, family entertainment and a marvellous craft fair in the shadow of Clun Castle.

Following its successful music programme of last year, Clun Memorial Hall is hosting two major bands: The Popes, supported by Luke Day, on Saturday and the evergreen Wurzels on Sunday, with local band the Whisky River Boys ...

On Sunday, from noon, there will be free entertainment for all the family in Clun Square, and the now-famous Frost Queen’s Street Fair will include return visits from the Rhythm Maker and Swords of Chivalry; theatre from Kaleidoscope Theatre Company; Clun Mummers and, of course, the Frost Queen and Green Man. With street entertainers, food stalls, jazz and more, it’s an unmissable day out ...

Monday, May 4, is Clun Green Man day, with the unique Battle on the Bridge ending the procession through the town, and the Green Man battling with the Frost Queen to herald the arrival of spring in the Clun Valley. Afterwards, visitors can browse dozens of stalls in the castle grounds, courtesy of English Heritage, buy local crafts, watch demonstrating artisans and be entertained by medieval sword fighting, maypole dancing and duck racing. Shropshire folk band Whalebone will play a free gig at the craft fair.

It all sounds great fun and I must go to it myself one day. If you want to know more, visit the Clun Green Man Festival website.

But it is not as traditional as all that. Because the festival is a modern invention: the book The Roots of Environmental Consciousness, edited by Stephen Hussey and Paul Richard Thompson, says it was first held in 1997.

One of the reasons I like Bishop's Castle and Clun is that they do not let their remote situation prevent their having a good time and bringing in visitors. And there is a well-known quip that all the oldest English traditions were invented in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Well, this is one that was invented in the last quarter of the 20th.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hope they are not going to roll cheese down the hill side!