The Fringe Festival at the Crown and Sceptre

I knew the Fringe Festival was on this weekend in various venues about Stroud, but despite hearing the sound of music last night I hadn't twigged what we might be missing. Keith came round for a chat at teatime, so we went for a beer, as is our wont. Helena said she wanted to come too so we headed off to the Crown and Sceptre pub which is about one hundred and fifty yards from our house.

The place was seething, although the interior of the pub was fairly empty. It turned out that all the beers, in fact about forty different real ales and cider in barrels were all assembled in a special bar in the marquee erected in the garden. When we reached there walking under another more open tent structure over the car park, we found that the judging of the vegetable, flower and cake contest had just finished. I decided to go home quickly to get a camera, but despite its proximity by the time I returned all the tables were clear. Rodda, the landlord, was finishing the event by auctioning a few items for charity and then all the tables had to be removed to allow the stage to be rebuilt for the bands to play on into the night.

We are so lucky. Rodda is a terrific landlord and has brought this pub back to life in recent years as the centre of the local community around Horns Road, in the east of the town. It is the heart of the ward which I represent and he always makes me feel very welcome.

Before sitting down at last with Keith and Helena, who had been chatting in the pub itself ever since I went to find my camera, I walked to the back of the car park with the marquee behind me and took a couple of pictures of the scene. The woman in the bright dress suddenly appeared in my viewfinder here to add a certain 'je ne c'est quoi' to the scene.