Festival time

Yeah!  I managed it!  I actually took the dog for a walk yesterday afternoon.  Mind you, I had not really appreciated just how weak this wretched chest-thingy has left me and I was getting pretty tired after only 10 or 15 minutes ambling across a flat playing field.  All the same, it was good to get out again.  I had an errand to run in what we call "the village", which is the old village of Patcham, nowadays simply a suburb on the northern edge of Brighton alongside the South Downs.  The posters on the side of the road, that is the main road from London to Brighton, reminded me that we are just about halfway through the Brighton Festival.

The Brighton Festival is the largest arts festival in England and lasts for three weeks every May.  I cannot even begin to describe all the events that take place around the city during those three weeks - try Googling it and don't miss the fringe - but I will say that it starts with the children's parade which this year supposedly consisted of 5,000 children from 77 schools led by Vanessa Redgrave.  Brighton Lions Club do get involved in the festival in a sort of tag-along role right on the very ringe.  The Lilac Lark that we organise in conjunction with the Friends of Withdean Park is one of the fringe events.

Regulars at the festival are the Moscow State Circus and the Lady Boys of Bangkok.  But that's just the sort of act to go down well in Brighton.  Not that I have ever been.