Following on from the success of last months Tree festival, this week sees the start of the Stone Festival.
Some locals feel it is just milking a concept, and that there is no need for a celebration of stones in Widdlehole. However Brian Morganmorganson, of Visit Widdlehole welcomes anything that will drag tourists here and he is confident they can put some marketing spin on the festival to make it sound better than just piles of stones dumped around town.
The highlight of this years Stone festival is this beauty that is on loan from Wiltshire county council.
Widdlehole councillor Iyamaon Dafiddle told us “We couldn’t believe it when Wiltshire agreed to loan us this massive rock as we didn’t fancy dragging one of our own from the coast and we think having a feature rock from another county will really bring in the tourists at this tricky time of year.”
Most of the exhibits are made by local school children and are just collections of garden stones in bowls, but the stone festival is worth a visit because they’ve also convinced some local artists to balance some stones on top of each other.
Some locals are making larger displays and apparently for the first time there are exhibits made from made-made stone and concrete mixes. This has bought some much needed sponsorship from local builders and stonemasons.
So why not come and look at some lovely piles of stones and buy an ice cream or a coffee while you are here?
Remember that during the Stone Festival you can park for free for up to 3 hours in the council operated car parks!
The Stone festival isn’t without its opponents of course. Residents of Chuff Passage have found the lorries dumping piles of rocks in the road at all times of the day and night a nuisance.
The organisers of the festival said “We operate within legal limits and we did warn all residents well in advance. This sort of thing does nothing but good for the town and we are not going to let a few daft old codgers spoil it for the rest of us.”