Later this week, the village hosts the annual Fairport Festival where 20,000 come for 3 or 4 days of music, bands, entertainment, food and drink. There are 8 camping fields and one main stage in the Fairport Field, but other venues are dotted around the village (The Edge, Field 8, the Brasenose Arms and the Red Lion), so the village will be exceptionally busy. Fairport this year is sold out and obviously accommodation is at something of a premium. Our friends Neil & Karen live on board a narrowboat and were planning to attend. Since we have a mooring at the bottom of the garden (garden one day!) and no boat yet, we offered it to them. They arrived on the Sunday before Fairport, but only after running the gauntlet of the pre-Fairport buskers charity event at Cropredy lock.
The calm before the storm
Through Cropredy lock with an audience. Our plot is about 50 yards behind the camera.
Once at the site, Neil and Karen settled in to watch all the preparations. Our neighbour has very kindly offered access to the mooring from next door, otherwise Neil and Karen would need to climb over the fencing to get in and out. It's probably a novelty being moored at the bottom of a building site, but because of Fairport, the lines of moored boats stretch for well over a mile along the Oxford canal in both directions, it is an extremely convenient location. I'm sure they've had better views though!
Neil has his own blog covering is travels on the canal at nbchalkhillblue.blogspot.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment