Glenferrie Festival 2018

The Festival on Sunday was a great success.  It was a beautiful day.  The small chance of rain turned out to be a few tiny drops on the windscreen as I drove there, not even enough to wet the road, and the temperature was a balmy 20˚C/70˚F with just enough cool breeze to move the scarves near the front of the tent.

I teamed up with another stall holder and we organised adjoining tents so that we could watch each other’s belongings while we moved cars to and from the car park, about 10 minutes away.

I was all set up by starting time

and I was just admiring the way the sheer scarf looked against the white tent wall and moved gently with the breeze when someone walked up and bought it.  

A great start to the day, and later in the day the one in a similar position on the other side of the tent sold, as well as 3 other scarves, including one of the chenille ones I’d just finished.

I wrote in the last post about making tea towels in 17 different colours and how they fitted into every colour scheme I could devise.  Clearly I must have missed a few colour schemes as I took all 17 with me and brought all 17 home again.  

That’s the amazing thing about selling at markets, some days it’s all about scarves, some days it’s all about tea towels – and some days the customers seem to have left their purses at home.  Not that I really have any concerns about last Sunday, 5 scarves is a very good day and it was great to be able to talk to people about what was involved in weaving scarves and tea towels, and about the Makers Market and its imminent move to its new (but actually back to its old) home.

There was a lot happening at the Festival, plenty of people,

lots of kids,

and lots of dogs. Directly opposite my tent was someone selling organic dog treats.  She also had the good sense to provide large bowls of water. 

The dogs were queuing up for a drink and then, if they sat nicely, got some organic dog treats as well.

We had a Chinese dragon,

but it seemed a bit smaller than last year and I was quite taken by the three small daughters from one Chinese family who were all dressed up for the day in their tiaras and eating blue fairy/candy floss.

We had the mascot from the local football club

and lots of small boys, and a few small girls as well, dressed in their club jumpers and clutching helium balloons.  I saw one small boy lose his grip and the balloon floated away.  He was last seen eyeing off his even smaller sister’s balloon.

We had the local Scottish pipe band which has been going for over 100 years, helped no doubt by a regular supply of new recruits from the nearby Presbyterian boys’ school where one of the music options has always been bagpipes.  I tried hard to include a couple of snippets for those like me with Scottish blood but unfortunately Blogger had other ideas.  I could upload the videos but they wouldn't open so just imagine the skirl of the pipes!

There were Thai, dancers, Spanish dancers and Colonial dancers.  There was food of every description and camel rides again although I didn’t have much opportunity to explore anything except our immediate neighbours where I found good coffee, a tasty lunch and a very welcome mid afternoon ice cream

A good time was had by all although I was very tired at the end of the day and was fast asleep by 9 pm, which is several hours earlier than my usual bed time

Helen