any more for any more?

We're very pleased to now confirm that the wonderful Angus & Julia Stone will be also be playing at our fete on the Sunday. If you aren't familiar with either Angus or Julia (brother and sister) then have a little look at the below video.

I've got them on my ipod. They're very good.

ukulele a go go

Amidst the welly wanging, odd shaped vegetables and unruly ducks,  you might notice an abundance of small, four stringed instruments around the park this summer, that resemble a cross between miniature Portuguese guitars and plucked lutes.

As part of our cracking line up of music and dancing, we've enlisted the help of some very fine ukulele players to get everyone into the fete spirit.

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are coming along on the Sunday to strum everything from Nirvana through to the theme tune from Shaft and a Cossack version of that old George Formby classic, Leaning on the lampost.

George - an inspiration to ukulele lovers everywhere and collector of execllent ties

The orchestra itself consists of seven ukuleles and a bass ukulele (which is actually a bass guitar but since it has four strings, is affectionately known as the bass ukulele). They've been going for 23 years, ever since Richie dared George to play his son's Smurf guitar at a gig, and they're still going strong.

According to Jodi who looks after getting the orchestra from A to B, the ukulele or 'uke' is relatively easy to learn and with schools across the country encouraging budding ukulele players of the future, there is now a shortage of ukuleles in the UK.

So if you've always fancied yourself as a ukulele player but have never got round to learning, you can come along and try the next best thing with the nice people from Karauke, who will also be at our fete on the Sunday.

Karauke is just like karaoke but instead of singing at a bored telly, you get to jam with a band of chipper ukulele players instead.

According to Nick from Karauke, soft rock numbers work really well and they do a mean version of Karma Chameleon, in case you want to get a bit of practice in before the fete.

And for any of you who were slightly concerned about toe treading or string bashing-at-dawn, Nick lent George from The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain a spare ukulele the other week when they were an instrument short, so there's no animosity or professional rivalry there.

Just plain, good old fashioned ukulele love.

Make sure you get involved in some at the fete.

some more confirmed acts for the fete

We've just had confirmation on some more great music acts for both Saturday and Sunday at the fete. So we're very excited to let you know you'll now be able to catch this little lot on the band stand.


Wallis Bird

James Carrington

Peter and The Wolf

Rod Thomas

And even more Wallis Bird, back for her second appearance of the weekend.

We're still dotting the t's and crossing the i's on a few more great artists. Keep your eye out here for updates as they come in.

put up posters and win stuff

We're hoping that you might be able to help spread the word about our village fete this summer in your local neighbourhood or place of work. All you need to do is download this post, print it out and stick it up somewhere where lots of people might see it.

Then you can take a photo of it and enter it into our flickr competition if you like. There'll be prizes for best placed poster, the strangest placed poster and the place where the most people are likely to see it.

It's all about keeping it local these days.

please say hello to the innocent band

Here's a very sneak preview of the innocent band who played for us here at Fruit Towers last Thursday lunch time. They'll be playing again at our village fete on both the Saturday and Sunday so keep your eye out for them on the programme.

Every single member works here Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm, so we're quite proud that they've managed to pull together a fully fledged 9 piece band in such a short space of time. In the blurry distance, you can probably just about make out Caroline, Cass, Ceri and Vic on vocals, Duncan on drums, Jamie M and Tim S on trombone and trumpet respectively, Ruvan on guitar, Malinna on bass and Ben T working his magic on the piano. Oh and there's a tambourine that gets passed around as well. We can't forget the tambourine.

And here's a chicken with his eye on some apples. Unfortunately, he's already been booked for another engagement this summer.

re-entrants ukulele duo do the ace of spades

We love a bit of the ukulele at innocent. That's why we've got the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain coming along to play at our fete on the Sunday.

If you also like a bit of the ukulele have a look at this rendition of Motorhead's The Ace of Spades by The Re-entrants. It's truly unique.

Just to be clear The Re-entrants won't be playing at the fete. But we will have cover versions done on ukulele's that's for sure.

flea for all

A fete wouldn’t be a fete without a circus of some kind and this year we have Professor Malcolm Jephcotts coming along with his very own flea circus. It’s a family heirloom, passed down from his grandfather to his dad, and consists of some extremely talented fleas.

There’s Bruno, who can lift a 2p coin, 70 times his own weight, Trixy who works her magic on the miniature trapeze and special guest star, Fleavel Knievel, who likes being fired out a cannon. We’re locating the dog agility arena in a different part of the park to avoid any walkabout fleas on the day, so make sure you pop along to see Bruno in action and don’t forget to bring your specs

local marketing, for local people

Ceri found a lovely example of some local marketing at our nearest pub the other day. Then on my lunchtime stroll today I came across this sign for our friends at Brackenbury Primary School's Summer Fair this Saturday (literally a stone, or stray tennis balls, throw away from Fruit Towers) .

Their Summer Fair is being supported by the local estate agent by the look of it so they've come up with the very nifty idea of sticking up estate agent signs with the children's own art work advertising the event.

If you'd like to advertise your own school/ WI/ cricket club or any other type of fete or fair, or to find the nearest ones to you this summer pop over to our fete finder.

fancy a ferret?

When it comes to ferrets, what Mal doesn't know about these furry chaps isn't worth knowing.

If you hadn't already guessed, Mal is a ferret handler by trade and before you start writing in to complain, that is his actual job title and not something we made up. He's been racing ferrets for the last seven years and is coming along to our fete again this year to race some more.

Here are his top tips for picking a winner:

Look for the pedigree

A twitchy tail, a well groomed coat and a mean look in the eye are all signs of a speedy racer. Ferret blinkers make no difference whatsoever.

Shout encouragement

Banging the boxes just confuses the ferrets. They know their names so call them and they'll come running. This year, I'll be bringing Crazy Jack, Eco Warrior, Bad Boy Bubba, The Silver Surfer and Kev the Ferret to name but a few.

Handler's decision is final

I am also the race adjudicator so if there's any bribery to be done, fizzy cola bottles in a brown paper bag won't go amiss.

Mal and his ferrets will be at our fete on both days so if you fancy a flutter on the ferrets, make sure you pop by and place a bet on your favourite furry racer.

meet the morris dancers

Please say hello to Nick and Maureen.

They're both active members of the Baldock Midnight Morris dancers who are going to be coming along to our fete this summer.

Maureen has been Morris dancing since 1996, which means she knows a thing or two about dancing a merry jig.

We had a chat with her to find out a bit more about stick bashing, black books and dancing in bells.

You're the foreman of the group, so what exactly does the foreman do?

A group of Morris dancers is known as a side. Each side has a Bagman (who looks after the admin, finance and organising side of things), a Foreman (who teaches the dancing) and a Squire who draws up the dances and decides who dances what when we go to events. I've been teaching the dances for our side for the last 18 months.

How many dances are there?

Hundreds. We dance mainly Cotswolds dances, which means the dances come from little villages across the Cotswold region. All traditional Morris dances are listed in The Handbook of Morris Dancing, commonly known as 'The Black Book'. Some sides will only dance traditional dances but we like to think of Morris dancing as an evolving tradition. It's great fun to do new stuff and tweak dances to make them your own.

What's your favourite dance?

A Ragland dance called Blue Eyed Stranger.

What are all your badges for?

They represent all the different sides you've danced with. Each side has their own badge and when you dance with each other, you swap or sell each other badges. We went along to an event in Rochester at the start of May where there were 67 different sides. That's a lot of badges.

Do you have your own band?

We've a chap who plays the melodeon. It's sort of like an accordian but smaller and with buttons instead of piano keys. We sometimes have a drummer and fiddle player and then everyone who isn't dancing usually has a jangle on the tambourine.

Can anyone Morris dance?

Definitely. Anyone over 14 can get involved with our group.  It's brilliant exercise, a lovely way to meet people and lots of the perfomances take place outside pubs, which is always a bonus after lots of thirsty dancing.

The Baldock Midnight Morris dancers will be dancing their hankies off at our fete on Saturday 2nd August. If you fancy finding having a go yourself, why not have a look at the excellent links section on their website to find out where your local group is.

now interviewing

We had our first village fete advert in London's Metro newspaper this morning. It was next to an advert for the Biggin Hill International Air Fair. We didn't get grumpy though, we're both on different weekends so no conflict of interest. That old bi-wing plane looks really good as well.

yes, no or maybe?

Along with this fete blog, website and flickr group we've just set up a new FaceBook event page for this years fete (you'll need to be logged into FaceBook to see it).

If you're one of the FaceBook fanatics out there it would be lovely if you could pop over and let us know if you'll be coming to this years fete but clicking 'yes, no or maybe' RSVP bit on the right hand side of the page. Then if you fancy it invite your favorite FaceBook friends along too.

We'll be trying to keep the page up to date with all the latest fete news and stuff over the next few months. Then we'll stick all our pictures and films on it after the weekend. And invite you to do the same.

some musical highlights from this year's fete

some musical highlights from this years fete

Here's a very quick run down of some of the great music acts we've booked in over the weekend so far (and a nice picture of a duck listening to music)...

It's an eclectic collection as ever.

James Taylor Quartet:

Imelda May
Faireys Band (see them in action at last year's fete here)
The Boy Least Likely To
Jive Aces
Josie Jo
Son of Dave :

Peter & The Wolf
Wallis Bird
James Yuill:

Prints Of Whales
Adam Callan's Sweet Memory Sounds
Cut A Shine:

Christian Prommer's Drumlesson
The Boy Least Likely To
Ukulele Orchestra of GB:

James Carrington
Imelda May
Dynamos Rhythm Aces
Josie Jo
Earl Okin:

Findlay Brown
Wallis Bird
Prints Of Whales
Adam Callan's Sweet Memory Sounds
Dynamos Rhythm Aces:

Cut A Shine
Cosmic Sausages

Still lots more to be confirmed.

we're back like burt bacharach

It's time to dust off the bunting and straw hats again and start getting ready for the innocent village fete 2008. We've booked up our same little corner of Regent's Park, London for the weekend of Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd of August this summer. The innocent village fete is back.

And so are our friends from last year Faireys Band (we had to have them back after this)

and the marvelous Earl Okin.

Amongst many, many other musical and fete like highlights. Watch this space as they say.

as if it were yesterday

We have to apologise that it's taken us so long to upload a film about our village fete this summer. Its been quite a while since the fete, it's got very cold between then and now for example.

But watching the highlights from our weekend in Regent's Park back in August has managed to warm us all up a bit this morning. It feels like it was only yesterday.

I'm going to go and buy an ice pop.

(The music is by The William Fairey Band incase you are wondering. They also played at our fete on Saturday to a raptuous reception).