We started off outside the Old Bridge Hotel with this set of dancers who were very enthusiastic and energetic.
The lady horsewoman shot out to the front and around and back at the end of the dance but I missed it because I was just watching the dance. However she came out to talk to her friend so I took this shot of her then.
We moved on to next to Holmfirth Church where there was a troop of dancers in purple doing there performance. I think they said they were from Stockport which is about half an hour away from here.
Opposite the church is Sid's Cafe from the television series "Last of the Summer Wine". It was originally a hairdressers but it has become a cafe since the TV program made it famous around the world and is now one of the major tourist attractions. Here they're doing a low kick ...
... and then a high kick.
We stayed outside the church for a while and I put on my Lensbaby lens for a bit of an artistic image. The next group where a girl and a couple of guys. I tried to get the girl in focus and blur out the rest but I'm not sure it was that successful.
I put the proper lens back on and I love this shot where both guys are in the air.
After the dance this guy looked a bit tired.
The next troop of dancers were Canadian and were very extravagantly dressed so I ended up taking a lot of photos of them. Here they were just assembling ready to start their performance.
The Chief Barker in the jester costume started to walk around to introduce his team to the crowd. He had a bloke behind him carrying the moose head on a pole who was trying to keep out of sight.
As they got into their positions to start dancing I was quite attracted to they fellow in the yellow to the right of this photo.
The band got down and started with their music. The guy with the moose head on the stick is on the left. He had a moose crossing sign on the stick too.
The band were very good and added a lot to the mood of the dancing.
Round and round they go.
I was a little annoyed with this image as the focus is on the guy with his back to us. If the focus had been on the lady facing him this would have been a much better image.
Here's the fellow in in yellow again. His appearance reminds me of one of my work colleagues from the first job I had when I left school. Unfortunately that was about forty years ago so I suspect my old work colleague is no longer with us.
The guy in the background had dropped his stick and was just picking it back up. The rest of the team didn't look that impressed with him.
Here he is again, looking good.
Back to some more traditional morris dancers.
This lady was really getting into it and here she's airborne.
Round and around again.
And here's their band.
The little lad with his granddad (I guess) was shaking his bells to add to the sounds.
We went back around to the Old Bridge Hotel again where a gothic troop of dancers were chatting with the crowd. Here one of the performers was play acting a stick fight with this young girl while her mother looks on in the background.
Another one of the performers was chatting with another youngster in the crowd.
And the last photo of this mammoth post is another one of the female gothic performers waving her stick around. In the background is one of the male troop members with a green face looking on.
After this we went to Hervey's Bar for a drink and saw lots more of the performers wandering about. I chatted with a few of them in the pub, they were really funny and seemed happy to have a beer or two after their dancing. There seemed to be a bit of a lunchtime break happening so after the drink we headed back home. I missed taking photos of quite a few of the dance troops but we had other things to do today. Maybe next year the weather will be better and I might get to spend a bit more time at the festival.
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