Marden Swinging Picnic in the Park

The forth annual ‘Swing Picnic in the Park’. The venue is a village resident’s personal cricket pitch/back garden.

Marden Swinging Picnic in the Park

There was a tombola, raffle, races for the kids and many a tartan blanket. It was in every way possible the antithesis of Glastonbury.

Marden Swinging Picnic in the Park
The women on the stage went through 40 odd tunes. Including: Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory and Jerusalem.

Flags were waved at the appropriate points.

The odd thing is, that although it made me cringe a bit - the picnic was a completely irony free celebration of Britishness. Which was unexpectedly enjoyable.

My normal role at events of this nature is to stand at the back muttering sarcastic comments to whoever will listen.
I tried. However the vicar didn’t seem receptive.

All in all, Milo, Debra and I had a thoroughly great time. Met some great people who I would otherwise never have spoken to and drank far to much.

It just goes to show, being a hardened urban cynic has no place in rural England.

Written by exmonkey on June 10th, 2007 with 4 comments.
Read more articles on General.

4 comments

Read the comments left by other users below, or:

Leave your comment |trackback |RSS

gilesbooth
#1. June 10th, 2007, at 9:05 AM.

Next week on United By Yucca: ‘how I learned to love the Hunt’.

(That’s TV’s Gareth Hunt, by the way - although I wonder how long can you stay off our screens and still be able to describe yourself as “TV’s”?)

exmonkey
#2. June 10th, 2007, at 9:27 AM.

Foxes actually enjoy being hunted. It’s good for them.

ditdotdat
#3. June 10th, 2007, at 10:26 AM.

One can’t help asking why exactly Lambeth council, a British council in the English capital, would never dream of staging an event like this. African drumming workshops, fine, Diwali celebrations, fine. Even the Lambeth Country Fair is dominated by a giant Reggae stage. Three cheers for the country-side!

exmonkey
#4. June 10th, 2007, at 10:54 PM.

I think it’s the first time I’ve waved a union flag since 1977. The other village folk look like they get more practice.

Leave your comment...

If you want to leave your comment on this article, simply fill out the next form:




You can use these XHTML tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> .

Related articles