Local, regional, national and international acts will be performing as past of this year’s spectacular Winter Droving event in Penrith this weekend.
Organised by Eden Arts, the annual event held tomorrow, Saturday October 26, attracts thousands of visitors and the town’s streets are expected to be packed with people enjoying street acts, bands, a fun fair and a huge market comprising hot food, gifts and charity stalls with a dedicated arts’ market this year.
The charity stalls will offer an array of activities to get involved in – including mask making from A Wilderness Way.
The market and funfair will be open from 11am, followed by all the other shenanigans from noon.
The Drovers Cup is also returning, often a highlight of the afternoon with egg-throwing mayhem and hay bale racing through the streets.
The competition begins at 1.30pm in King Street and involves a series of challenges which test speed, agility, precision, strength, determination and a huge dose of self-deprecation. There is even a new finale to the infamous games with the introduction of the aptly named rodeo bull.
The programme this year includes musicians such as BAAB, the Commoners Choir, Tryckster, The Maybe Band, Nobody’s Friends Shanty Group, Melanie Baker, AJ and Ant, Åsa Larsson, Jamie Henry, Baybeat Street Band, Maz & The Phantasms and Street Beats, along with street performers such as The Penrith Twining Association, Nula Hula, Logy, Darryl Carrington, Felicity Footloose, Punjabi Roots, Duo Devour, Fanzini and Symmetry Circus plus much more.
Following the first Winter Droving event, which was held in 2012, it has grown each year, and organisers felt it was really getting big by 2019, said Eden Arts’ director Adrian Lochhead. But then the Covid pandemic came.
“We were determined that we would carry on, and I think we were one of the few things that did carry on, but we had to change it,” said Adrian.
Now, the event is back to where it was in 2019 with the event site stretching all the way down the town’s Middlegate again, with the road closure starting at the former Royal British Legion building.
“We are excited. We are really looking forward to it. It is very big this year; we have a lot of artists and there is large market again with about 75 traders. It is not just an arts festival – it’s got a real kind of identity that isn’t just arts or music.
“It’s a really distinctive event, you don’t see it in any other town, really. It is a great day for all the family.
“It is a thing to join in with by wearing a mask – Tatty Tim describes it as a mix of The Wicker Man meeting with a town centre party!
“It is as strange as the people here make it, with the wearing of masks, ears, tails and pig noses. It definitely has the feel of something that has been going on for hundreds of years.”
