Another Leamington Peace Festival last weekend, the 39th. It's the longest running free festival in the UK, featuring two days of music, community performance and 130 stalls. The event is organised by local volunteers to promote 'peace, environmental harmony and living in co-operation with others'. Charities, peace campaigners and community groups set up their stalls, alongside food, drink and global goods.
Sunday was hot and sunny and lots of people were already wandering around even though it was 11:00 when I arrived.
I was helping out at the Keep Our NHS Public stall. Our stall was a bit out of the way, but it did not seem to matter, people kept coming up asking to sign our petition and to discuss concerns about the way the NHS is underfunded and in danger of being privatised.
I did an hour on the stall and then had a wander around the park with Ken. We were surprised at the number of people because normally Sunday mornings are quiet, most people arrive in the afternoon to lie on the grass and listen to the music.
A girl's choir at the bandstand
attracted a good crowd.
I was particularly pleased to find this female beekeeper's stall as I've been looking for local honey for a while now.
This stall selling homemade lemonade was run by kids
lots of clothes for sale, as usual
hats
Save the Pixies, appropriately named for a Peace festival
too sweet for words - there is something about children's shoes that tugs at the heartstrings
Very few people listening to music, but by the afternoon this section would have been packed
delicious food
this is the stall where I get my samosas every year
Amnesty International, but I have to say, that I have gone off them since their line on prostituted women, or sex workers, to use the phrase Amnesty use
Justice for Palestinians, a cause very close to my heart
plants
Kenilworth chiropractic,
yoga
Soroptimist, a group I have not come across before, who campaign around women's issues
gay rights.
We did not stay as long as we would have liked, the heat was a bit too much, but it looked like another very successful Peace Festival.
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