Festival in the Streets

The weather has been horrible in the mornings and clearing up to be glorious in the afternoons so far.
Usually, my neighbour sets up a stall outside her house, and I join her with my bits and pieces, but the weather was so horrible that we thought we'd postpone it - until about 3pm, when the sun came out and stayed out, and she came round and said: "Shall we risk it?".
It stayed fair for the rest of the afternoon, and we sat in the sun and chatted, and sold a few bits and pieces.
Over the road, they had to stop letting people into the Rose and Crown because it was so full - I think because they were showing a big football match, or something - and the queue for the fish and chip shop was the longest I've seen it for years.
My neighbour admired a man's hat as he was passing by, so he stopped to chat. He was Edward, a magician, and he did some card tricks while he stopped to chat. He'd also been canoeing up the Wye, and had been a speaker at a Canoe Festival! While he was standing there, he noticed another couple passing by, and called out: "Are you from Portsmouth?"
It turned out that they were both part of the boat building community down there!
A lady was collecting for the Hay2Timbuktu appeal, to build new toilets at schools in Timbuktu. This is especially important for the girls at secondary school, who often miss school days every month because they can't use the toilets. They were hoping that they'd collect enough over the Festival to be able to start building work.
And when I was sitting in Kilvert's, having a quiet half of Trooper from Robinsons while my washing was at the launderette, a lady came round collecting for an animal sanctuary in Rossendale, Lancashire, which was fairly random!

Today, the Fair in the Square was packed when I came out of work, with music in the marquee. A Big Issue seller was outside Spar, dressed as a sheep. Down on the Pavement, a young man was playing the sitar, with a bird of prey sitting on a perch beside him. I think it might have been a peregrine falcon, and it was very calm with the crowds going by so close to it, considering that it didn't have a hood on.