Another rainy Traquair Fair
I’m just back from another Traquair Fair. I went to my first Traquair Fair two years ago and it rained quite heavily. There wasn’t one last year but in case I thought the 2011 rainfall was a freak occurence it happened again. Rain, wet tents, muddy dancing and drinking cider in the dark. We must be getting old though — no midnight trip to the maze.
We played some capoeira on the Saturday while the sun was beating down. We had a reasonable crowd at one point though they still wouldn’t “crowd” us. Even when we want them to form a tight circle around the action everyone hides off to the side. We need to concentrate on “street performance banter” to rally crowds and tell them what to do, where to sit and how to enjoy themselves. I think that would make for a more meaningful show.
So while we were programmed for a “Capoeira Dance Workshop” we ended up with a ninety minute capoeira game with some crowd interaction and an attempt to get people to clap or even sing. Enjoyable, especially on the lawn in the sun, in front of Traquair House, but not what it could have been.
The rains held off until we were finished and packing the instruments back up. The deluge when it came was pretty all-consuming though…