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Blown Away By Dicklefest - 7th, 8th & 9th July 2006.
The annual village festival took place on Townsland Meadow and in and around All Saints Church, Dickleburgh. A major event of this festival has to be when one of the large 12m x 6m Marquees took off just after 3.00pm on Sunday afternoon!
With gusting winds prevailing part of the day and the bellowing covers working a slow war of attrition on the stakes holding the structure down it suddenly took off to land in the cemetery immediately adjacent to the site. Fortunately the marquee had only four occupants at the time and it lifted off from the front (the long open side) flipping over into the graveyard, taking with it a selection of cakes and eggs. Naturally those present were shocked and shaken-up by their cover suddenly disappearing but fortunately no one was seriously hurt.
Other visitors were staggered to see the marquee upside down in the graveyard and it was all hands to the pumps to secure and dismantle it. Appropriately the Fire Equipment Preservation Society with four fire engines and crews were present. Those stalls, suddenly in the open, comprised of Home Made Cakes & Fresh Eggs, Jewellery and a couple of thousand second-hand books. Several of the cakes and some of the eggs took to the air! Later inspection revealed that damage was limited to a couple of rips in the cover and a few bent struts!
Preparations for the festival had been going on for some weeks with a great deal of printing and promotional work going on including circularisation of details to County Libraries and Tourist Information Offices, Press, Radio & TV, distribution of leaflets, inclusion of details on websites and to cap it all a tour of Diss and Harleston Supermarkets by a registered Town Crier (the Reverend Norman Steer) accompanied by the handing out of more leaflets.