5 May 2008 - Whitstable - Oyster Morris's May Day Celebration

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Amazingly, after the hot Bank Holiday Saturday, Monday was even hotter for our visit to Whitstable for Oyster Morris’s May Day celebrations.

The day started outside the library where we were “booked” to perform with several other sides including Dead Horse, Offcumduns, Maenads, and, of course, Oyster Morris. This was followed by an impressive procession down to Horsebridge past the cheering crowds, despite some initial confusion over the order of sides within the procession. Click here to see the video.

As is tradition, the procession danced along the sea wall at Horsebridge, but unfortunately Val missed her footing on the way down and crashed to the floor, badly twisting her ankle on landing. After some initial treatment from a passing male nurse (that's what he claimed, anyway), our own super-doc Andrew took over, exhibiting his legendary bedside manner. Meanwhile, the rest of the dancers carried on with a couple more dances.

After a quick lunch break (too quick for some), we lined up again to greet Jack-in-the-Green which then led the procession to the Harbour. Despite medical advice, Val was still up front leading the way. Steve's vital contribution to the procession was to carry the pizza, perhaps starting a new May Day tradition.

Each side did a couple of dances at the Harbour from where we processed up to the castle. Once there, the Morris sides gathered round for the singing of the Whitstable May Song which celebrates May Day. This includes the line Come give us a cup of your sweet cream or a jug of your fine beer. Fine Morris sentiments which we celebrated by repairing to the tea rooms for a refreshing cup of tea and a cake. At least this year the rain kept off!

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Kettle Bridge Clogs web site by Stephen Cordery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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