South Zeal (England) in August 2001
; South Zeal: How many of you readers Italians have never heard of this charming little village in the English countryside before now? And in the unlikely event of any answer in the affirmative, how many of you have been there for several days and is back for more next year? Well I'm willing to bet that even before the imaginary crowd of bloggers would see Italian speakers do not even get a hand ...
I, however, I did it with pleasure, for some years.
is unavoidable at this point a small, brief description of the place: South Zeal is a small cluster of homes smoothly lies in a basin of North Devon on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, a community of no more than 4 or 500 inhabitants, where I believe we can really say that everybody knows everybody ... There's nothing special, South Zeal: equals many other rural English villages where life goes slow but not for 362 days a year and then - in the first 3 days August weekend - totally transformed thanks to an event very much alive and heard in these parts.
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| South Zeal - Battershay, the main road on the left: the entrance to the town hall |
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| South Zeal - The old St. Mary's Church |
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| South Zeal - The back of St. Mary's Church with an adjacent phone booth |
South Zeal For three days he became one of the very heart of the English folk tradition: since 1978 we held the small but sentitissimo "Dartmoor Folk Festival" in which I participated for the first time in 1997 by Sue portatoci, a dear friend of passionate British Honorary fellow of the musical traditions of these lands. Attending a festival is an experience so compelling ... especially when you find this to be the only foreigner! And even when - after several years - began to come even a couple of Belgians the spell is broken, creating, in fact, with the two other "continental", a pleasant sense of complicity.
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| South Zeal - "Dartmoor Folk Festival ' Morris dancers in the courtyard of the King's Arms Inn" |
The festival takes place in the soccer field (made up of a natural grass not exactly flat) which is placed on the main stage, two farm wagons the oldest of which has become the symbol of the festival. Around two tents were erected to house the pub and a covered stage, the other - smaller - instead of hosting banquets for the sale of handicrafts.
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| South Zeal - "Dartmoor Folk Festival ' the background of the big market of handcrafts |
Despite the prejudices about the British climate, Devon and throughout the southwest English in general is a region in August and a sunny climate very pleasant. Thanks also to the breezes coming from the sea never too far away you are from anywhere in Devon and Cornwall even on hot days you can feel good. Sure, the weather instability is still a fact of life so as not to exclude a few days of rain even in the driest Augusts and for this reason that any initiative will be provided outside (this season) is still planned, creating covered areas where find, if necessary, a rain shelter.
That Saturday in August on the lawn of South Zeal, the sky was almost clear and the heat was particularly intense: the big market of handicraft products are offered as well as a welcome shelter to the scorching rays of the sun. The commercial offer this was not - in reality - not exceptional in terms of quantity and quality but what interested me just because I was absolutely taken by the atmosphere that permeated the English and that shone from the faces of people, products offered, the behavior composed and polite even of very young children ... What a difference with the gaiety and noisy and intrusive behavior often unnecessarily excessive for us Italians! And what I felt fine pleasure also to appreciate the public spirit of these people, amazing for us: no annoying noise, no litter or rubbish left around, no useless little vandalism and absolute respect for even the most trivial nature of the rules of social behavior.
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| South Zeal - "Dartmoor Folk Festival ' old entertainment for kids of all ages |
; Beandomi full of this "full immersion" totally absorbed by the perfect "British way of life I was leading, I was wandering distractedly watching the various proposals merchandise to a stop in front of a no longer young ladies who - using a simple device rudimentary - using cables such as fiber wove large drums of the ears of wheat and barley: ropes rough in appearance but certainly robust despite the proverbial fragility stems that form them. The constant and regular movement of the hands of the farmer, the slight rustle of the gimmick to weave the sunlight pleasantly soft cloth from the tent they had created something hypnotic I stayed for several, long minutes to observe that repetitive work with your mind completely serene and clear of thoughts, a bit 'as sometimes happens when, on a cold winter's night, entice us to watch the flames flickering light of the strains or embers of a fireplace ... It cost me some effort and attention from my eyes off big tangle formed by the rope but it is absolutely not painful but remains surrounded by a pleasant sense of relaxation, this immersive feel part of the situation as if I was born there too, making me completely forget for long minutes on my being a foreigner in that place and among those people ...
(more. ..)
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| South Zeal - "Dartmoor Folk Festival 'a " Clog Dance (ie dance with wooden shoes to beat the time) short, a "grandmother" of the tip-tap! |
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