News

Fête Day 2008

Longhope fête day dawned sunny, albiet blustery, after a night of heavy rain. The forecast was for storms and high winds, which was due to a deep Atlantic depression more familiar with autumn, so the experts say! People had trouble erecting marquees and tents and one migrated north into the school grounds. The sun continued to shine up until the start of the procession from The Latchen, when dark clouds appeared and threatened to empty the heavens and spoil everything. But no... they blew over without a drop The procession went well, lead musically by the Gloster Gladiators Marching Scout Band, a good turn out of walkers, the dignitaries in their classic vehicles, the Playgroup float entitled "Longhope Playgroup Visits TV Programmes Past and Present", Hope Brook School float with the theme "Protect Our Riverbanks" followed by the local constabulary. To much disappointment of the crowd and our photographer there was no bus this year, as it was probably still trying to get through the major roadworks in Gloucester.

The fête was opened by Stephanie Severn, Head of Hope Brook C of E School, who also presented the prizes. The best float this year was judged to be Hope Brook School and Playgroup were second (well there's a surprise! We would like to point out that Ms. Severn didn't decide the result of the floats as she might have been somewhat biased perhaps?) The best walking group was judged to be Pippins, second were "The Spice Girls", with third prize going to "Pirates of the Carribean". The best individual walker was the Ostrich.

So the afternoon went well with people spending their money and feeding their faces. Black clouds still threatened, but everyone you spoke to was very optimistic saying: "It never rains on Longhope Fête" as though they were daring it to... and so it did at about three o'clock, just a brief shower that sent most scurrying for the nearby shelter of the beer tent. It didn't last but did dampen things a little though, the Music Man kept everyone singing as usual. As the afternoon went on, the wind got up to almost gale force and the rain continued in light showers, and many of the large crowd headed for home.

Pictures

As always, here is a selection of pictures from this year's fête.

The stage is set (nearly).	Never say never. Sheila is back again with her new apprentice, Mary.	Gloster Gladiators Marching Scout Band.
The daleks invade Longhope.	The Hungry Caterpillar.	More walking groups.
Pippins pre-school walkers.	Longhope Amateur Dramitic Society walkers.	The Playgroup float.
Hope Brook School float.	Well we had to include Carole yet again!	The Spice Girls
Stephanie Severn with the Fête Princess, Little Princess and Page Boy.	Raptorcare Falconry and a Harris Hawk.	Val and the raffle stall.
Richard Pett is Longhope's entry to Masterchef	The beer tent looked surprisingly empty this year.	You know him by now...
A selection of animals for this year's barbeque.	The Fenton's at work making Christmas lights.	Some of the fête-goers.
Open wide and say aaaaaahhhh.	The Splat-the-Rat stall.	The tea hut.
The tea hut host for this year.	Looking very black over Bill's mother's.	All riders will pay.
Still very busy and as popular as ever.	A tight squeeze through The Latchen.	The floats reach their destination.

Carnival Princesses

This year's Fête Princess was Georgia Smith, Little Princess was Becky Hines-Vincent and the page boy was Isaac Eaton.

Final Notes

Even by five o'clock the rain still hadn't amounted to anything to, unfortunately, give the crowds a good soaking. We would like to thank the funny jokes department for providing the captions and the author for correcting the spelling. If you have any comments or suggestions please use the Feedback page.

See you next year!