Oddly enough most of the group quite enjoyed the litter collecting (and a lot of the crowd were great – helping pick up recyclables, saying they’d been saving cans and bottles for us) and it did give a feeling of great acheivement. We had a set on recycling bins by the tent our stall was in and, on the first day, we were rather dismayed by the amount of non-recyclables put in there. So, for Sunday, we prepared some clearer labelling (remembering that many of the Mela participants didn’t read, or certainly didn’t read English) 

and had one volunteer at a time sat by the bins to keep them pristine. Since it was a lovely day this job was the most popular one – particularly when accompanied by some suntan lotion and an ice-cream.  This seemed to work though as the bins were still looking good and recylable when we left some time after 6pm.

I never thought I’d get so worked up about rubbish but, when you are running around picking up cans, paper and plastic bottles and people walk up and put soiled nappies in your binbag you can see that there is still some work to do…

Dance group, originally uploaded by Skuds’ Sister.

This is by way of testing the blog this button on Flickr. Dance music was great while there was dancing – when it was just music I recalled that I don’t much like any dance music, in whatever language…

It wasn’t the best of weather, although obviously drier than last year, but there was a good crowd. We had never been to Peel Park before but getting on the bus and following the large groups of people towards the men with huge bunches of balloons seemed to be a good plan.  The huge bunches of balloons are everywhere – all inflatable Tiggers and Stitches, Disney really is a universal language, although I guess inflatable Bollywood stars might be a bit off.  There were three stages and we looked in on all of them through the afternoon. The Mango stage seemed to have the more community-based acts, we saw a dance group from Scotland, and the Sunrise stage had the big names. I think. We hadn’t really heard of anyone but the crowd obviously were seeing their favourites – they were applauding and yelling for particular songs as they started and when the guy in the picture above came out in a sparkly silver and black tunic it showed that he must have been wearing a famous costume from a Bollywood film – the crowd went wild. That’s another thing we must really get round to doing – the local Cineworld always has the latest Bollywood blockbusters on. (Although, to put it in perspective we still haven’t seen the new Indiana Jones….)

Finally we found the World stage – far more our speed. We saw a duo playing tabla and sitar, wandered off to find food and managed to miss the steel band, and then got back in time for the blind sitar player.  It had cooled down a bit by then so we got to cuddle up and listen. The oddest thing was that where the other stages had been filled with young British Asian audiences we ended up in a tent with all the middle-aged white hippy types. Home at last! (Actually there were a few non-white faces, a few africans and a small group of Sikh lads)  The main reason I couldn’t  stick with the Sunrise tent though was a combination of dance music and overpowering aftershave – its a good job I’m not in my 20′s and looking for love anymore: I think I’m allergic to young men….

All in all a really good day. We are hoping to take a stall along next year for Friends of the Earth – could be needed as just about every food stall was using polystyrene plates and we didn’t see a single recycling bin…

If so, are you willing to let us have a copy for future UAF leaflets or the website? No payment (we are saving funds for campaigning) but full attribution if requested.

Unfortunately I was out of town at the time, so I missed it all. I don’t know how successful it was at increasing membership, but going by the photos in this week’s Crawley Observer it certainly raised awareness. I lost count of the number of UNITE badges and stickers you could see being worn.

I think the crawley Mela is a bit unusual. Traditionally a Mela is an Asian festival, and tends to feature mostly culture from the Indian sub-continent. Our one tends to spread its net a bit wider. The organisers made a point of saying that the Mela this year would include acts and stalls from everywhere.

This was bit confusing, as I can remember an African band last year, as well as an African drum workshop and a calypso singer, and the ubiquitous Irish dancing.

Croydon have a different approach: they have a more traditional Mela on the Sunday and a World Party on the Saturday. That seems to work, but I like the idea of mixing it all up like we do.

Locally the event gets a lot of support from all sorts of organisations. Obviously the borough council plays a large part, BBC Southern Counties always have a large presence and both the local newspapers are there in force. Various other organisations and charities have stalls there, either as a fund-raising activity or to publicise their services.

Jayne and I went along after our interviews, and I have to admit that I thought it was all a little flat compared to previous years. There did not seem to be as many punters there, and there seemed to be less choice in the merchandise in the stalls. I didn’t see the African stalls selling clothes and musical instruments for example, although the range of foods available was as wide as ever – with the notable absence of the Malaysian satay stall from two years ago which I really missed last year.

We were not there all day but even so, in previous years you could not turn a corner without bumping into one of the borough councillors, who used to turn out in force to support the event. This time the only ones I saw were the Mayor and her husband who were there in an official capacity, and the new leader of the council. Its not a major consideration for the general public but I think it shows a level of support for the organisers when most of the councillors turn out.

I am coming to the conclusion that the Hawth is not the best venue for this type of event, either in terms of size or layout. Because it is a fairly small site everything is crammed together closely, with no open spaces to talk of. If you want to lay out a blanket away from the crowds and just chill there is not really anywhere to go, and having the car park within the grounds means that you always have to keep one eye out for cars.

I can see the benefits for the organisers – having the theatre there means that there is no need to bring in portable toilets (and it means that the toilet quality is a lot better than at most festivals). The same applies to the theatre bar – no need for a beer tent. It didn’t apply this year, but the theatre also provides some shelter if the heavens open. But having said that, I think the current venue is a bit claustrophobic for a festival. There is certainly no room to grow.

I just can’t help thinking that it would all be a lot better in Tilgate Park, Southgate Playing fields, Goffs Park or Broadfield Park, although I’m sure we would all miss the parking chaos at the Hawth.

We could only manage a couple of hours because we had to open up the community centre for someone who was hiring it for a 5th birthday party for his daughter first, and then later we had to open another hall up for someone else’s 3rd birthday party. But inbetween that we managed to get to the Hawth for the mela. The Hawth is the local theatre and events like this, and the annual folk festival are held in the grounds.

Although we could not stay very long we had a good time. We saw quite a few old friends up there, saw some of the entertainments and had a bite to eat. We both got some food from the GHU tent. The GHU is the Gurjar Hindu Union who have planning permission to build a new temple and community centre in town, and are trying to raise the funds to build it. I had a vegetable curry with rice (OK, but a bit fierce for me) and Jayne had a selection of interesting stuff (Far too fierce for her) followed by a couple of Cokes to cool us down.

There was a wide variety of stalls selling all sorts of hippy/ethnic stuff, and a few fund-raising stalls for charities. I ended up, as usual, getting an extremely lively African shirt. I now have a large collection of African and Arabic clothes that Jayne won’t let me wear…

Had 22 votes gone the other way back in June I suppose I would have been at the mela as a VIP, and would have been required to wear a suit, and it would have felt like an obligation. I was quite relieved to be able to turn up in shorts and a t-shirt and just do what I felt like.

We enjoyed ourselves anyway. The only downside was the parking. All the car parks filled up pretty quickly and cars were on the grass verge for 100s of metres in every direction. I think the Hawth is not greatly served by public transport, but even if it was I suspect most people would have driven anyway. I don’t know what it will take to get people out of their cars.