Wealden Food and Wine Festival 2016
Grounds of Pevensey Castle
Review
There Will Be Days Like This
. . .
People basked in the July sunshine yesterday (Saturday 16 July) as local families and visitors soaked up the atmosphere of the Wealden Food and Wine Festival 2016, that has done so much to see this little corner of Sussex put back on the visitor map.
Fabulous atmosphere, queues for the donkey rides, touching to see that Mike’s Donkeys was at the festival, letting the kids get close to these calm, gentle animals, riding, stroking, cuddling and talking to them in exactly that way that he said they would, and yes, they did love all the attention .
The stalls were buzzing. Have I just tasted the best local pork and apple and crackling bap in my life? It took be back to my youth and the days when these kinds of fayres were all over counties. Fantastic service and smiling faces amongst all the stallholders.
Over in the demo tent, people stacked up on chairs listening intently to food masters, and then a walk sideways and a listen to the band with some eighties classics pumping out as excited children did cartwheels of delight in the VIP area at the front.
As we entered the auditorium that has played host to events for hundred of years, we were greeted with about the best PR team that Wealden Council money can buy. Skill, care and superb organisation and a tote bag to take home.
At the information tent, invitations to comment.
The Wealden Food and Wine Festival 2016 ticked all the boxes, Genius we said as we popped the comment into the polling booth box.
Crackling. Can we have some more please.
A real pleasure to see so many families hampering round the castle, the gentle buzz of conversation and the sheer delight on the faces of so many families having such fun.
On the village Green at Westham, the scarecrows, the precursors to the Scarecrow Festival, were gathering with wit and attention to detail and creativity. Simple canvas to the Norman soldiers, like sails in the wind as they came across the Channel. Brilliant. We particularly liked the knelt down archer with the quiver of arrows and Sir Cedic, tall and proud and bold as brass.
When Saturday came. The Wealden Food and Wine Festival 2016 in the grounds of Pevensey Castle, and they will be doing it all again today, as we are promised more treats and special events.
Congratulations to Wealden Council for all the organisation, and to English Heritage for their participation.
From all walks of life they came to enjoy the atmosphere, lovely to hear a family talking about olden days and how they used to come to Pevensey on bicycles and to see the face painted children and the way in which big groups adopted the castle for the day with their gatherings.
So much attention to detail by the organisers.
Congratulations to all concerned, safe to say that the grounds of Pevensey Castle are now firmly back on the map as a visitor destination.
The grounds of Pevensey Castle are a natural auditorium and theatre set. At the Pevensey Historical Pageant of 1908, amongst all the dramatic enactments, attended by something like 25,000 people, there were donkeys as well.
Then the children called it dressing up, but there was face painting as well.
When local people come together to celebrate locations, particularly somewhere as special in the history books as Pevensey Castle, there is magic in the air.
These kinds of event are so important to rural life because they become a part of the season and a time for people to celebrate what is best about the places where they live and the places that they love.
There Will Be Days Like This.
When there is an opportunity in the coming weeks for Wealden Council to evaluate the event, amongst the comments made in their polling box, we are wiling to guess there will be a lot of positive feedback and interest in seeing a Festival of this description become a regular feature in the local landscape.
—Bay Life, 15 July 2016
