What a fantastic evening!

Of course I mean the "Gala Concert". Great weather, great entertainment, spectacular fireworks. The crowd was a nice mix of students (the majority, I guess), local residents and staff. And it really was mixed, not with the different groups keeping to themselves. There were picnics, strawberries and cream, an enormous queue for the BBQ, a shorter queue for ice creams, wine, beer, etc. I'm useless at estimating the size of crowds, but I'll have a guess at 2000 people in all. Maybe more? And evreybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. They were genuinely appreciative of the performers, who were excellent.

Here's a little panorama taken about 8pm.

It is very wide. The full sized version is 9000×1800 and too big to fit into a Blogbuilder gallery. You can find it here. There are some other assorted pictures in my gallery.

A video of the fireworks is now living in Google Video, here.

I took some friends who live nearby. They thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening and specifically asked that I convey their appreciation to the organisers. So, if that's you – consider yourselves appreciated. They also thought it would be a great shame to leave it as just a one–off event, and maybe it should be done again for the 41st anniversary?!

I agree. I didn't really know what to expect of the event, but it was so much better that I anticipated. If it was repeated next year, people would be better prepared for it, especially local residents, and it could be even bigger and better.

Steve Rumsby : 24 Jun 2005 00:54 |  Tags: Gala Warwick |  Comments (4) |  Report a problem