Sunday, July 29, 2007

Hull happenings...

A bit like buses, events in Hull - they all come along at once. Hull Jazz Festival, Hull Pride, the Wilberforce Challenge Cup (a 120-mile clipper race across the North Sea from Rotterdam to Hull), the Sankofa Sunsplash, the first Hull and Humber Grand Prix, it's all going on round here. Weirdly, the city centre seemed peculiarly quiet today, given that there was a free jazz concert going on in one place and, o'er yonder, some Zapcat's tearing around the Humber and, elsewhere, some people playing music inside a transparent sphere. Yesterday, I was laying bricks, but today we made up for our absence on the Hull events 'scene' and ran around as many things as we could. We marvelled at the Glastonburyesque amount of portaloos on offer for the Jazz-fest crowd, who numbered - at the time we were there - mere hundreds and was mostly made up of people who looked as if they had been pre-fitted with colostomy bags for the occasion. Zapcats tearing around the Humber is, I must say, and despite the commentator trying to whip up a frenzy, a rather tedious spectacle - I imagine that the real pleasure of this sport is being on board a Zapcat, making yourself feel hideously ill as you bob along muddy waters at 50 mph, coming within inches of falling overboard. We sulked because nobody even came close to handing us a Wilberforce 2007 balloon or flag, giving them, instead, to ungrateful children. We settled down for a break outside waterside cafe Cuckoo, where the Corona and coffees were accompanied by a four-piece trad jazz combo's renditions of standards that included When The Saints Go Marching In and Down By The Riverside. Lovely, it was, to wander around this flood-ravaged city and feel proud that it could hold such a smorgasbord of well-run events. Just where were the people at, though?

Overheard in Hull: "Eat all of your candy floss in one go. It's better for your teeth".

5 comments:

Benjamin said...

The Lit Fest must be up and running soon I guess - or the Humber Mouth. Just seen Dave Simpson, Dave. Made me smile.

Dave W said...

Ben! Nice to hear from you. Humber Mouth is so last month, though, all been and gone I'm afraid. Hope your relocation's working out for you?

Benjamin said...

Yeah, it's going okay, thanks.

Ed - The Music Man said...

Did you know that Joe Longthorne was from up your way? Ed-The Music Man

Dave W said...

Thanks for your extremely informative comment, Ed. I shall give Joe a call!