The sun and 100’s of people came out for the Beltane celebration in the orchard, an ancient Celtic tradition to celebrate the peak of Spring. There was a variety of live music on stage, with Rick Chappel, Gavin Nicol and some wonderful impromtu performances and improvised jam sessions with a variety of different people.
Vaughn Bennet and son Tristan sang some of their traditional Cornish folk ballads and Rosana Cox shared some of her Beltane inspired poetry with us.
The orchard had a maypole for the first time, borrowed from St Erth school which was a lot of fun. The maypole dance accompanied with a wonderful impromptu tune from the musicians was a merry affair of kids and adults attempting the sequence. It might not always been correct but all worked perfectly with much laughter and enjoyment.
There were various free activities to enjoy, making dragonflys and flowers from Cornish palm leaves and flax, making fairy gardens and wands. Thanks to Trace Chandler, Sarah Taylor and Jo McIntosh for leading these activities. Kids had a ball running around together, playing with the hula hoops and there were 5 large cardboard boxes which were a big attraction.
The new orchard building, the CORE was very much admired and enjoyed and people gathered to swap plants and seeds with Jo Riley from Seeds of St Ives and enjoyed hot drinks, cake & veg stew.
The Orchard bar with it’s friendly volunteer barmen served the orchard’s home made cider, a keg of Mine Brewery Ale and apple and elderflower juice.
Orchard volunteers Gisella & Paul, with help from their kids served up loads of pizzas from the orchard pizza oven.
There was a beautiful archway created by a group of children from St Ives Secondary School who are volunteering for 6 sessions over the next 2 months as part of their ‘Be inspired’ activities. Decorated with spring flowers it was the perfect entrance for the event.
Mayor of St Ives, Johnnie Wells came up to enjoy the festivities and the finale was Penhood, the Penzance ‘Oss who suddenly appeared when the fire was lit and danced around the Maypole to the delight of onlookers. Thank you to everyone who came along to the event.
Beltane Maypole
Some wonderful photos sent to us from Robin of the Hood Photography
A huge thank you to Tesco for funding this event.
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