Greenman Festival at Clun

It's May Day and that means one thing: the Greenman Festival at Clun. Clun is a small village about an hour away from our home. It hosts an annual festival to celebrate the start of summer. The May Day festivities start off with the Battle on the Bridge. This is a staged fight between the Greenman (a symbol of summer) and Old Frosty (a symbol of .. you've guessed it.. winter). Summer always wins, though today it was hard to tell as it remained cold and rainy. I guess the Greenman needs a bit more practice before he gets into the swing of things this year.

We watched the battle and then headed to the market field, where the kids made a bee-line for the circus toys. They had a go at stilt-walking and juggling sticks and balancing an hour-glass shaped thingy on a string. They enjoyed themselves.

We had some pancakes for lunch from one of the stalls. The kids got very sticky from the maple syrup so we went down to the river to wash the worst bits of sticky off. We were just in time for the duck race. About 200 plastic ducks were launched into the stream and floated under the bridge. Someone with a bit of insight had rigged up a net downstream of the finish line to stop the ducks heading for the sea.

We took a look round the stalls and the kids watched the fire-breathing show. Then we went up to the castle ruins on the hill overlooking the market field. By this time we were starting to get chilly so we headed back home.