Monday 29 June 2015

What we need is music!

Prestwich Carnival beer tent.  Saturday, no events, just stalls.  The carnival shuts at Six, on the Saturday, and we have taken next to nothing.

Sunday, we have live music on stage, some great local bands, and the Bury Samba drum band right outside the beer tent.  Sunday we take a reasonable amount, and then, just as we are in full swing, we have to shut as the Carnival finishes at Five.

This re-enforces my thoughts that a Beer Tent/Festival by itself is not enough, you need music.  Time to think about organizing a music festival maybe.


The boat is off the ground, and I crawled under the full length and gave it a coat of black, thus proving to Sam, If I can fit under it, you can! I left him to put two more coats underneath during the week.

Just driving over the tops from Hebden Bridge, there was a superb cloud formation, proper end of the world stuff!

I got back to the boatyard, and Kier waved a beer at me "It's my mates birthday, have a beer"
We sat around talking, and he brought out a barbeque he had made.  Ian was just walking past, stopped for a beer, and piled wood into the BBQ.  Pete and Stacey were wandering past, and stopped for a beer.  They produces some sausages, I produced a loaf and some beer. Somebody produced a guitar and a ukelele, Kier produced a bottle of malt, and we had instant impromptu BBQ Party.

After it went dark, we ordered a curry, the party boat came in and produced some more beer, and Dangerous Dave appeared as if by magic.

These random impromptu parties are great!

Off back down south on Monday, I saw Kennet at Granary Wharf

Monday 15 June 2015

Quack, and a bit of Black

Tatton Medieval fair was on, but again, very quiet.  I am beginning to think these beer tents are more trouble than they are worth.

 



I finally found a chrome tiller pin, to keep with my "no brass" theme.  The first visible duck on the boat!

Sam has been working on many coats of blacking, and the boat is looking superb!

Monday, I spent a few hours with a 20 tion bottle jack, lifting the boat so the bottom could be blacked.

Monday 1 June 2015

Pop up bar

Sherwood festival was on again, Sunday Monday.  We decided to get set up on the Saturday, and open Saturday evening for the re-enactors who were there early.

The problem with Saturday was a two hour delay on the M62.  We didn't get to the Sherwood Forest showground until 7:00.  People were muttering about having to go into town to find a pub, but we said we would be open soon. 
We then pulled the fastest bar setup ever out of the hat.  From arriving on site, Marquee up, Bar up and beer ready in an hour and ten minutes!

 The weekend was too quiet though.  Typical of a council run event - no advertising.

 Keeping in the same "pop up" mode, from the time we shut the bar on Monday, the tent was down, van packed, back to Ramsbottom, Van unloaded and having a pint in three and a half hours!

Saturday, I drove the van up to Boot, to drop off beer for their beer festival. A bit of a stuggle, as the van is too long for many of these roads, and the engine too small to drag beer up the hills.

After a night at Boot, I went up to Cockermouth to collect bottles.  The sky was wonderfully moody on the way up.

At last, we now have Marshmallow Unicorn in Bottles!

A rush back on the Sunday morning, as we had another eating at Lukes, Sunday dinner with everything!

 And, of course, Timo is the star of the show