Chagford Arts Festival, which took place over the weekend, is always an exciting affair, but the floods in the Midlands added unexpected drama, as a headline act battled to get to Devon from Birmingham. Two members of the internationally acclaimed Bhangra Group, Naachda Sansaar, had arrived early to do workshops in the colourful Indian Bhangra dance with children at Chagford School and to lead the opening processsion on Thursday night. But the remaining seven members, scheduled to perform at 7pm on Friday, became stranded on the M5 motorway in their minibus due to floods. The show did go on, with the two band members asssisted by Chagford School until the remaining members made it on stage two hours late. The Chagford audience gave them a rapturous welcome. Other parts of the festival were largely unaffected ? a parade followed by fireworks, art exhibitions, open air short film screenings, music in the pubs, a late night horror movie and songs from West End musicals, a smiling letterbox competition and a comedy night finale on Sunday. A performance of Treasure Island by a Gloucestershire-based theatre company was the only event that had to be cancelled as the players were stranded. Tina Thomas, a festival committeee member said: ?Ironically, the Treasure Island cast are marooned.? LEFT: The opening parade.
