Loughborough Canal Festival

The Loughborough Canal Festival was started some years ago when people got word of worrying plans to cover the canal basin in Loughborough with tarmac as part of a road improvement scheme and boaters wanted to protest. It was originally held over the Easter weekend, but when Easter was flooded out in 1998 it was hurriedly rearranged to the May Day Sunday, and that is where it has remained, except that its sucess has caused it to expand to the Saturday and Sunday. Boat entry is free and usually over 100 boats throng to the canal in the centre of the own, and usually the weather is good. The road scheme died, not the canal basin



The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) Leicestershire Branch has always supported the event both with boats and with our branch display, and 2008 was no different. Lily Pad arrived on site on Friday with the display equipment coming on Element, a 19th century boat, arriving at about 7pm that day. Carol held a dinner party for 5 of us that night, delicious food with a filo pastry wrapped salmon & leek main course and a rather alcoholic Tira Misu dessert. It set us up for the weekend.



The weather was pretty good, dry all Saturday and only a little drizzle on Sunday until it started to rain more just about as the show was to end. There were perhaps less people than last year, but the towpath was busy all day and on our stand we spent the whole time talking to people.



Of course Monday dawned dry and bright and it got warmer by the hour during the day!











We have stayed put all day, Ian visited his mother who has not been too well, & Carol has prepared for friends coming for dinner. Tomorrow we move on