Leeds Waterfront Festival 2018

Leeds Waterfront Festival 2018

June 2018

This festival was never on our schedule but finding ourselves in Leeds with a few days on our hands, why not?

 Messing about on Kennet

 Views from thre Sky Bar at the Hilton

We contacted Joy at CRT who orgainises the Granary Wharf element of the event, and asked if we could tale part. After an hour or so we were told that a historic boat wasn't coming and we would be welcome to use its mooring just behind the Hilton Hotel. This is not an event which is generally attended by traders so we would be on our own, but in the company of Ribble and Kennet, two historic Leeds Liverpool short boats.

The basin around Granary Wharf was playing host to the activities which the public could take part in, notably canoeing, paddle boarding and fishing with live music and a BBQ in the central area around the graving dock.

CRT arrived in force and set up a number of gazebos in their snazzy new green and blue liveries, offering different activities and information designed to encourage circulation around the whole basin.

Its hard to comment on the wider attendance because we only saw our corner. There is lots more to see and do at Brewery Wharf and Leeds Dock a mile down the river. Our pitch seemed to be veritable wind trap, with a howling breeze running over the butty even when 50 ft away fishermen were in tee shirts and shorts.  Our corner of the basin had a lowish footfall and sales were not exactly fast, but we sold a lot more than we would expect on a general pop up site and with no fee we are not grumbling.

Its surprising who you meet at these events, far from home. Over the course of the last couple of days a number of people have wandered up and admitted to being blog readers, and have been following our progress over the Pennines. This is always a bit of a surreal experience where they have a lot of background information about us while I am left wracking my brains about where I may have met them before. Its really good to meet regular readers so thanks for making yourselves known.