The day started early with a dead truck... with no other way of getting marques, tables and equipment to the site... we took off for the hall, hopeful that a miracle would happen - it did! There waiting for us was one of our members, with a truck - "just in case we needed him".We were set up and ready to go when an Indian Meditation and Vegetarian Food tent set up next door to us... so we moved our (far from vegetarian) sausage sizzle as far away as we could. The tents (thanks HQ) were great, with visibility from a good distance people came to see what the Sallies were doing at a Festival like this!
The air was soon swirling with the sounds of African drums, Indian, Thai, Pacific Island and American Indian music - and accompanying them on his squeeze box a regular attender of our Corps Drop-In centre provided music in our tent. Our tents provided a place for people to sit and rest with a cup of coffee (or tea) and a muffin or sausage - many took the opportunity and were soon joined by one of our members to share a chat and a few moments.
People from all nations meandered throughout the 200 or so tents sampling the smorgasbord of food and drinks - amongst them were the people of The Meeting House (red shield) shirt, giving out chocolates in the shape of the Army shield and stopping to tell people why the Sallies would be there."A lot" of children lined up to have their faces painted, and take ownership of a balloon sculptured pet.
It was a great day - the rain stayed away, mostly: the people of the community were reminded again that The Sallies are in their community: the members of The Meeting House were reminded of the reason and the people for whom they exist.
