Chesterfield Canal Festival
THE Chesterfield Canal Trust will hold its Festival at Staveley Town Basin on Saturday 30th June and Sunday 1st July.
This will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m with admission at £5, free for Under 12s. Free parking is nearby with parking for the disabled on site. The whole site is accessible to wheelchairs.
All four trip boats
All four of the Trust’s trip boats will be in action; two of them have wheelchair lifts. The trips will go through Staveley Town Lock and round the corner into the newly built Hartington Harbour.
Pleasley Vale Canoe & Activity Club will be running Canoeing and Zorbing and we are hoping to host the GB Canoe Polo team having a demonstration match.
There will be a flypast by a Lancaster on Saturday and a Dakota on Sunday.
Demonstrations
Children will be able to have a go on a mini-digger, courtesy of TCH/JCB and the Waterway Recovery Group. There will be demonstrations of water rescues by dogs from the Newfoundland Training and Demonstration Team.
Other attractions will include Birds of Prey, archery, lots of children’s rides, a climbing tower, radio-controlled boats, a face painter and vintage vehicles. You can even handle a skunk with Encounter Exotics!
Free entertainment will include music, dance and street theatre all day, both in the big marquee and outside by the lock.
There will be scores of stalls of every type from home-made cakes to old tools to canal art to the National Trust. Several caterers and coffee stalls plus a Real Ale Bar run by Brampton Brewery will ensure that no one goes hungry or thirsty.
Separate concerts
Separate concerts will be held on both the Friday and Saturday nights, starting at 7.30 p.m. Friday will see the return of the ever-popular Swing Commanders—'If it swings, they can, and will play it!'. Pictured with the Trust's John Lower. Whilst Saturday will bring Some Antics plus Judy Dunlop & Jon Scaife.
Tickets for each concert cost £10 and are available from the Chesterfield Canal Trust website. There will be on-site parking, food stalls and a Real Ale bar.
Flotilla
Finally, on Monday 2nd July, there will be a flotilla of all four trip boats from Staveley Basin right up the canal to Tapton and back, with stops both ways at Hollingwood Hub and Tapton Lock. 10 miles, 12 locks. Tickets are just £10, or £5 one way. Ring 07925 851569 to book.
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