You could be forgiven for thinking that we were in height of the Summer we all prayed for as thousands of visitors gathered in Ironbridge for the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage festival.
The lucky thousands who visited the festival were treated to an amazing day, certainly the best Ironbridge festival so far.
The wharfage along the river was closed to traffic which allowed the visitors to stroll in the glorious Autumn sunshine and visit the many stalls displaying an amazing variety of local produce.
The stalls stretched as far as you could see down the wharfage and there was a great carnival atmosphere all day with the air filled with the delicious wafting smells of freshly cooked crepes, fresh coffee, Thai food or hot roast pork.
The variety was brilliant. Lots of local businesses selling all sorts of things from hand made jewellery to organic sausages. From Thai food to home made fudge and organic veg to Truly Scrumptious cup cakes.
The kids loved going on the old fashioned double Decker bus on display courtesy of Shropshire and Wrexham Trains. I can remember catching these myself going to school. No door on the back! that wouldn't get past health and safety today.(I'm not that old by the way we just had old buses where I lived)
Coalbrookedale Dale school children were also in fine voice and the childrens choir sang beautifully for us in the square. A big thanks to Mrs Williams for all of her hard work and not forgetting the children who were simply great.
If the sunshine, singing and stalls wasn't enough the Victorian Funfair was a great addition to the day with the old fashioned Carousel (I thought that I was in a scene from Mary Poppins) and the ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel is the scariest ride I have ever been on. You think it's scary being dropped a thousand feet in 2 seconds on one of the modern rides. Try being 50 feet up on something which is older than my dads fishing tackle and appears to be just as rickety. I know that it has passed all of the safety tests and is entirely safe but my faith was tested a couple of times. My wife says that I am just a wuss. (whats a wuss? please let me know or maybe not!).
And then there was the Fireworks display. The day finished with a beautiful and powerful display lighting up the gorge and the bridge with incredible reflections in the river as the sky erupted with cascades of vibrantly coloured stars and explosions. Breathtaking.
And of course as you would expect - we were there.
The Best of Telford and Wrekin were there in force on the day talking to hundreds of local people and letting them know where to find the best local businesses. It was great to speak to so many of you in person. We gave away hundreds of balloons to the children and at one stage the whole of the wharfage was bobbing with blue 'Best of' balloons. It was also great to see Jim Hawkins visiting the festival with his family and I am sure that he will have lots of great things to say about it on Radio Shropshire this week.
We ran a free competition on the day guess how many balloons in the 'best of' mini. Not original but loads of fun nevertheless. I promised to let you know who won out of the hundreds of entries. And the winner is............
MICHELLE POULTON with 81 Balloons. Michelle wins a free meal at the highly renowned Pondicherry Indian Restaurant in Ironbridge. Well done Michelle. I know that you will have a fantastic meal at the Pondicherry Indian Restaurant and will be very well looked after.
So that’s it for another year and if you missed it, you missed a real treat. Put it in your diary for next year and keep looking on our events page for lots of things going on in Telford and Wrekins local towns.
