The Bond Summer Fair

The Bond Summer Fair

August 2014

Our relief crew duly arrived at Camp Hill locks as planned on Friday morning and car was exchanged for the boats and we were afloat again - a gap of only five days!

Helen was not feeling too well so went below to have 40 winks and woke as I brought the boat out of the last of the six locks of the Camp Hill flight!

The reason for this switch was out attendance at the Summer Fair at The Bond in Digbeth. The event is street food based and attracts a much younger crowd than we usually see, and one with little or no boating connection. Its therefore time to go all evangelical about the cabals and the buildings we were occupying.

The venue has a small basin big enough for two trade boats - in this case the Cheese Boat (Sue and Ade) and ourselves. We both moored at the junction just below the locks, slipping into the Bond's Basin at about 9.30 leaving plenty of time before the 12.00 start. Regrettably is poured with rain during the set up and we reluctantly reversed the boats to place the butty under the covered section.

The weather reduced the attendance from the spring's 1400 to about 800 but sales remained good and in the end we were only slightly down on last lime.

The event is base round a "street food" theme and was a lot of fun to take part in. The event has a very laid back and mellow "vibe" and whilst numbers were down the attendees clearly had a good time.