Never complain that life is dull. On Friday night we watched the Olympics opening ceremony on our new giant TV (so gross it is tucked away in a television room on the top floor). It was a truly astonishing spectacle. Only the English could have put on a show for a worldwide audience that involved, among other things, Her Maj parachuting in to the Olympic Stadium with James Bond, and Rowan Atkinson subverting the London Symphony Orchestra's interpretation of the Chariots of Fire theme-tune. Today, not to be left behind, Hastings Old Town put on its carnival procession as part of Old Town Carnival Week. This was not quite up to Danny Boyle's level of inventiveness, but then the town didn't have £27 million pounds. Undeterred, we did our best...Queen Ellie sat on a throne in front of the Neptune Fish and Chip shop and was crowned in a ceremony attended by the Mayor, our MP and other dignitaries. Her first task was to award a prize for the best-dressed window in All Saints Street, after which she boarded her coach (a nicely-converted caravan with cut-out sides and a throne, towed by a Land-Rover) and followed the dignitaries in a procession down the front and then up the High Street, attended by a group of drummers in yellow T-shirts, a second group called the Iceni Tribal Dancers, who waved gauzy wings, and another lot of drummers in fierce make-up dressed in rather frightening Goth costumes in red and black (in case you hadn't realised from my account of Pirates Day, the locals love dressing up). The Iceni Tribal Dancers were slightly surreal. Although their name evokes Boadicea we had, instead of Anglo-Saxons in woad, half a dozen ladies of ample proportions out of the Arabian Nights, accompanied by a sort of not-very-grand Vizier.
I have to say it was brilliant. I'm sorry we missed the display of dancing from the Iceni Tribal Dancers, but I'm sure they were great. I don't know why Danny Boyle didn't include all the participants in his massive pageant: but his loss was our gain.
The Carnival Week has a full and diverse programme, and I shall report further over the next few days!
Antony Mair
PS you can see further pictures of the event by clicking here.
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