WCCC at the 2019 Wadebridge Carnival
Fuelled by a lot of hard work behind the scenes, and plenty on the day, WCCC entered the Wadebridge Carnival with an ambitious plan: to recreate the Hogwarts Express.
Seven carriages and a tandem-powered locomotive made the interesting one-and-a-half mile journey to Egloshayle playing field for judging. A freak gust of wind and some dodgy bike handling seconds from safety broke one carriage (it was my carriage, gutted!) but the other six and the engine arrived safely for judging. While we assembled the Coasters together to prepare to join in the procession - aided by Bob, a sack of cable ties, and some wishful thinking - the judges were making their rounds. A convincing smoke effect from the engine completed the look. After a short while great news! We won our category. More cable ties were employed to proudly display our 1st place placard on the front of the train and to attach our silverware. |
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The Procession
Given our stature (and frankly the size of our formation), we were given a late slot in the procession, for maximum impact / public safety.
Out on the road, at or below walking pace, things were much more manageable. The gusty wind was certainly a challenge but the very large crowds on the evening helped shelter us from the worst of it. We received many positive comments and plenty of laughter as we snaked our way up the road - riding a bike slowly with a plywood frame balanced on top is certainly more tricky than it looks.
As we made our way over the old bridge and turned right towards Lidl it became apparent that the small rise up to the top of Molesworth street and then down again was going to be interesting to say the least. Special shout-out to Mike on his overgeared single-speed bike.
After safely navigating the crowds and obstacles on the pedestrianised Molesworth street we turned right towards the cinema. By the town hall we were rudely held up by a smartly-dressed man wearing a big chain around his neck. After a minute and a few photographs excited rumours rumbled down the train to the array of witches and wizards in close pursuit: best in procession!
We found some more space for our growing collection of silverware and continued on around to the playing fields and the end of the procession.
Out on the road, at or below walking pace, things were much more manageable. The gusty wind was certainly a challenge but the very large crowds on the evening helped shelter us from the worst of it. We received many positive comments and plenty of laughter as we snaked our way up the road - riding a bike slowly with a plywood frame balanced on top is certainly more tricky than it looks.
As we made our way over the old bridge and turned right towards Lidl it became apparent that the small rise up to the top of Molesworth street and then down again was going to be interesting to say the least. Special shout-out to Mike on his overgeared single-speed bike.
After safely navigating the crowds and obstacles on the pedestrianised Molesworth street we turned right towards the cinema. By the town hall we were rudely held up by a smartly-dressed man wearing a big chain around his neck. After a minute and a few photographs excited rumours rumbled down the train to the array of witches and wizards in close pursuit: best in procession!
We found some more space for our growing collection of silverware and continued on around to the playing fields and the end of the procession.
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The Aftermath
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The atmosphere all evening had been brilliant, and buoyed by our success we took a victory half-lap and headed back to base to get the Hogwarts Express back to platform 9 3/4 before anybody noticed it was missing - not too much rush though, Hogwarts are on summer holidays already.
In record time we found ourselves down at the marquee in search of liquid refreshment where we discovered we had won the Committee's choice award. That was the perfect way to cap off a memorable day and we enjoyed the buzz of recounting the day's activity while basking in the glow of our achievements and my destroying of Dave's hard work (sorry!) A big thank you to everyone who put their time and effort into this project, whatever your contribution. |
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