Lowdham again

The big day at Lowdham was on Saturday. We managed to achieve our lowest attendance ever at one particular event, three, but we had to put up the House Full signs at more events than ever. These included Clare Dudman talking about her novel set in the Welsh community in Patagonia and forty people had to be turned away from a talk on the sandstone caves of Nottingham (a talk based on a book that first came out about twenty years ago!), so people voted for internationalism and parochialism. At the end of a baking day, in even more baking tents, one of the last sessions ran over, a packed house discussing ethics and philosophy while saner mortals were drinking shandies or eating cold grapes. During the odd quiet moment I helped clear tables in the cafe. An elderly person of my acquaintance, passing by, quietly said "So, it has come to this." At least it is a job.
Bright sunshine on the day helped, though it did produce some challenging results for those attempting to show pictures in the marquees - "if you could see this slide, it would show that..."
This was our first year without Arts Council funding. This was a challenge but we were still able to run a festival with 50 events over a two week period.