23 May 2009 - Dancing in Brattleboro

For the afternoon, the Ale organisers arranged a set of stands at various locations in the nearby town of Brattleboro so we loaded up the three buses and set off in convoy. We arrived at what we thought was our first dancing spot but this turned out to be the wrong place. In a spectacular show of independence, the three buses decided on different tactics to respond to the problem and each drove off in a different direction!

Thankfully we all arrived at our second stand at Pliny Park in time. By now the sun was beating down hard and everyone, especially the dancers, needed copious supplies of water. Geoff was dispatched to find some and he did so at the nearby hardware store. On his return with an armful of bottles of cold water, he was suddenly very popular! After several more trips, he eventually bought up the store's entire water supply.

There was a large and enthusiastic crowd to watch the dancing. Several sides shared the stand including one of the children's ones and they were a joy to behold.

Our next stand was a short walk across the town to a paved area outside the Co-op where we performed with a different set of sides. Unfortunately the audience was a bit sparse but Kettle Bridge (and the other sides) put on an excellent show. The final "stand" turned out to be at the Flat Street Brew Pub which involved no dancing, only the consumption of very welcome, cooling drinks.

But the dancing wasn't over for the day. All the Ale sides congregated in the Harmony Parking Lot (a name which conjures up visions of cars parked facing all the same way according to the rules of Feng Shui). From here, there was a short "circular" procession of all sides into Elliot Street which had been closed to traffic. A large and enthusiastic crowd witnessed more excellent performances including a couple of young, innovative dancers who arrived on motor bikes and danced to an electric guitar! As usual, Kettle Bridge Clogs put on an excellent show that was enthusiastically received by the crowd and fellow dancers alike.

Once all the show dances had been completed, it was time to seek out an evening meal. By common consensus, we decided to return to the Brew Pub where we had yet another excellent meal. At the end of the evening we returned to the car park where Pip found that his bus had been given a parking ticket for some unfathomable reason but this was thankfully later rescinded. Then it was back to the college to rest some weary limbs.