Local Watercress Festival - 11th May

I managed to escape from visiting relatives long enough to take a few photographs of our local Watercress Festival.

All are taken with the DA* 50-135 as I did not wish to risk changing a lens in the jostling crowd.

.....Start of the parade.




.....Start of another ritual of English men setting about one another with wooden poles.




.....The parade musicians.




....Antony Worrall Thompson distributing watercress to the hungry crowd.




.....Pausing.




.....Resting.




.....Market stall.




.....finally there were also various vintage vehicles, much as you would see at any show etc. but one struck me as unusual - an early American Airstream caravan.

An interesting and colourful set of images that give a good 'feel' of the event.

Nice images Hyram, I like the of Antony but wd have cropped out that blokes arm.
What is the significance of the blacked up faces anyway, do you know!?

I do not know the significance of the blacked up faces, other than to produce a very striking effect. This is their website www.hookeagle.org.uk/ which is quite amusing to read through but does not really shed any light on the origins of their costume. They obviously enjoy themselves

A W-T was standing up in a horse drawn cart distributing the watercress, rotating through 360 degrees, so most of the time he was looking the other way I left the arm in because the 'owner' was trying to attract the attention of A W-T but as you say it would probably be better without.

The official Press Photographer seemed to become more and more aware of my presence (maybe I am paranoid) and by the time A W-T had started his cooking demonstration, he was standing directly in front of him taking what appeared to be a macro shot of his left finger So I was not able to get any good shots of how to cook with watercress.

After that, it was a quick dash back home to see the ancient relatives.

I think that for this type of event, two bodies might be useful. On occasions, having nothing wider than 50mm with me was a disadvantage.