Littleborough Rushbearing Festival 2010

Photo: Laura Wild

Littleborough Rushbearing Festival 2010

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The biggest event in the Littleborough calendar is taking place this weekend – the Littleborough Rushbearing Festival.

The festival began last night (Friday 23 July 2010) with a folk sing-a-round at Littleborough Conservative Club and today (Saturday 24 July 2010) a day of community fun has taken place at Hare Hill Park.

Families enjoyed a whole host of fun including a Punch and Judy Show, a dog agility display which saw dogs jumping through hoops, some of which were on fire, a beautiful array of colourful Morris dancing, a Viking Combat display, entertainment courtesy of the Wardle Community Brass Band and of course the Rushcart Procession.

The procession started at the King William pub, Shore, headed down Shore Road to Hare Hill Park and on to Littleborough Square before taking to Hollingworth Road to The Wine Press at Hollingworth Lake.

Morris Dancers involved in this year’s festival include: Rochdale Morris, Jersey Lillies, Eryri Morris, Datchet, Crown Rapper, Thieving Magpie, Ely and Littleport Riot, and Raving Maes.

Tabatha Best of the Raving Maes said: “This is the first time we have ever done the Littleborough Rushbearing Festival and I think we have already decided it is one of our favourites. It has been lovely and we hope to come back next year if they’ll have us.”

Gordon Monks the foreman of the Rochdale Morris group said: “The run up to the festival can be terrifying on occasions, my wife and my daughter are on the organising committee (LEAF – Littleborough Events and Associations Forum) and they make the day tick the festival now runs like clockwork since we started in 1991. 

“I am very much involved the practical side of the day, and it is something Rochdale Morris looks forward to. We are a bit quiet with members at the moment and we don’t get out a lot so this is the biggest weekend of the year for us.”

John Carney, Hare Hill Park’s Warden was delighted with the success of the day, he said: “It is very pleasant and very nice everybody is enjoying themselves. I think it has gone really well. The dancers have been superb and the Vikings are great.
“This is a good community event with a great atmosphere and the participants enjoy it just as much as the visitors. The people make it great.”

Chairman of LEAF, Steve Lister described the day as “brilliant” he said: “Every year we try to make the festival more polished, put more in place and get more people to come along. This year has been brilliant, we have got more people here the weather is shining on us and everybody is having a good time.
“We wanted today to be a happy community day.”

The festival continues tomorrow (Sunday 25 July 2010) in Littleborough Square.