GUNNISLAKE Festival has represented the ‘community spirit’ that has been revived in the village, according to organisers, and it got off to a good start last weekend with a village market, art café and local history walk — with more planned for the rest of the week.

The sun shone for the first village picnic and the procession was led by town crier Hilary Fairhurst.

People dressed up as nursery rhyme characters, joined by members of The Rubber Band, for their walk from the primary school to the King George Field.

Prizes were awarded for the scarecrow competition with first prize awarded to Lucy, Mary and Steve from the Post Office for ‘Olaf’. Second prize went to Polly, Dan and Paula for ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ and joint third went to Penny and Emma for ‘Bo Peep’ and Alan and Claire Webber for ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

The prize for most amusing scarecrow title went to Caroline Lake for ‘Little Red Climbing Hood’.

During the afternoon, there were demonstrations of taekwondo and Zumba as well as a Punch and Judy show and singing from Chimney Rock which could be heard echoing around the valley.

GLAD (Gunnislake Amateur Dramatics) put on a play titled Trapped — The Rule and Bant Story based on a true story of the 1889 Drakewalls mine disaster.

The play took the audience into the lives of the men and women who lived and worked in the Tamar Valley at the end of the 19th century and relived the mine accident and the race against time to save the trapped miners.

Performed in the studio space created in the back bar of The Buccaneer, the play was written and performed by local residents and was an absorbing re-telling of the well-known Tamar tale.

The production received nothing but praise, provoking the odd tear among the audience.

Chair of the festival committee Carol Mcallister-Green said: ‘We have had a very positive response and people enjoyed the village picnic and are keen to make it an annual event. We have really concentrated this year on developing a festival week that will have something for everyone and is securely based in the Gunnislake community.

‘The festival was kicked off by a GLAD production which was a complete sell out and there may be further performances in the autumn. This was followed by the village picnic on Sunday where it was lovely to see so many of the young families in the village being entertained. This was ended by singing from Chimney Rock — a revived village tradition.

‘The festival will be rounded off by the Man Engine visiting the village on Monday. It has spilled over into a fortnight but it represents the new and revived community spirit that is developing in the village.’

The festival continues until this Saturday (July 23) and other events taking place include amateur art, poetry and photography competition/exhibition as well as a professional artists exhibition, an exhibition and talk on local history, community singing as well as music in the pubs.