Margate Soul Weekend 2014, Sunday

I was only able to catch about 90 minutes worth of the soul weekend, unfortunately.  But what I saw was fantastic, as ever.



Margate Soul Weekend 2014 (160 pics)

Dreamland Expo visitor centre official opening

Dreamland Margate is finally reopening in 2015 - the town has suffered badly from its absence.  The new visitor centre is intended to get the ball rolling.  A surprisingly large crowd gathered for the opening - it's obvious a lot of people hold fond memories of Dreamland (myself included) and will be pleased to see the park up and running again.



Dreamland Expo visitor centre official opening (58 pics)

What A Vintage Carry On 2013, Margate

The first of what the organisers hope will be an annual event.  I only managed the Sunday as I was elsewhere the previous day.  Carry On essentially celebrates the glory days of Margate's past and revels in nostalgia, with many shops around the old town taking part.

There was some decent music in Market Street, and also on the piazza from the Electric Beatles.  There seemed to be a decent turnout and the assorted vintage items to be seen all over the place certainly excited a fair bit of interest.



What A Vintage Carry On, Margate (148 pics)

Margate Carnival 2013

Someone had tipped me off that there were going to be some exotic entries in this year's Margate Carnival...though I must admit to being somewhat sceptical.  But to my surprise, the Great British Carnival group brought a touch of Rio, Egypt, Portugal, Notting Hill and who knows where else to the streets of sunny Margate.

Not sure who pulled it off but it was a major coup for a town most often in the news for its many negative aspects.  The only real down side was the fact that the parade travels from Westbrook to Cliftonville, meaning the sun is directly in your face.  Which makes getting half decent snaps difficult.

Due to the assorted GBC entries and their considerable popularity with the crowds, the parade took much longer than usual and I think this in turn delayed the Soul Weekend events on the piazza.  The couple of hours or so after the carnival passed by were all I caught of the music event but the place was packed and everyone was having a great time in the glorious sunshine.

Margate can still make it happen now and then.



Margate Carnival 2013 (203 pics)

David Cameron decoy debacle in Margate

Anti-Cameron protest, Turner Contemporary (74 pics)

The Tories don't exactly have a good track record when it comes to the flagrant squandering of public money.  While driving the mentally ill, disabled, desperate, vulnerable and poor to despair and often suicide with increasingly severe and barbaric cuts aimed at saving a relatively small amount of cash, they think nothing of throwing vast sums at pointless nonsense, much of which benefits wealthy public schoolboy chums.

So it probably shouldn't come as too big a surprise that when the hugely unpopular David Cameron visited Margate to 'cut the ribbon' and open the ugly blight on the Thanet coastline that is the London Array wind farm, all sorts of convoluted and no doubt very expensive tricks were used to ensure he got in and out of the Turner Contemporary without having to face the crowd of protesters waiting outside to greet him.

Dozens of police surrounded the Turner.  Likewise private security bods.  Lots of very obvious spooks tried and failed to look unobtrusive at various points around the gallery.  A 'select' audience was chosen for the private function which closed the public car park, and this seemed to include very few people from Margate.  Helicopters came and went.  Several (obviously deliberate) false alarms went up that Cameron had arrived.  It was as though a much hated dictator like Robert Mugabe was due to appear, rather than the democratically elected leader of a free country.

Finally at some time around 9.45am, a Land Rover suddenly screeched along Margate seafront and dangerously lurched on two wheels into the Turner car park.  I think the driver had probably been watching old episodes of the Sweeney.  The vehicle was there and gone so fast that the waiting press snappers barely had a chance to think about getting a shot.

The activity and general demeanour of the gathered police and security were meant to suggest this was Cameron arriving.  But it wasn't.  The prime minister wasn't in this car.  When it left approximately an hour later, I was one of the very few people who got any kind of picture of the occupants of the Land Rover.  None of them was David Cameron.

I suspect he either left via the rear entrance, where further police, security and undercover officials loitered near two black Mercs, or was in one of the various helicopters that came and went.  I would be very interested to know how much this decoy pantomime cost to put on.  And what the overall cost of this one short visit cost taxpayers.  Given that Cameron is out and about all the time, huge sums of money must be spent smuggling him into and out of locations so he never has to face the increasingly angry public he is supposed to represent.

Take a look at the photo above.  The guy in the back seat, adjusting his tie in exactly the same manner Cameron does, is clearly not the prime minister.  The man to his left wasn't Cameron.  The passenger next to the driver wasn't Cameron.  And the driver, obviously, wasn't Cameron.  Was he in the following silver vehicle (with blacked out rear windows)?  Possibly but I doubt it.  Was he in fact being spirited away via another exit?  Almost certainly.

David Cameron is a spineless coward.  When Ed Miliband visited nearby Deal, he had only a PA and an aide with him and was quite happy to rub shoulders with the local people.  I'm not a big fan of Miliband's but at least he had the balls to get out there and not hide behind a wall of secrecy and police protection.  Cameron, on the other hand, knows how much he's hated.  He must have heard the constant loud barracking of the protesters outside while he was schmoozing with his 'select' mates.  Many of those pals looked distinctly uneasy when they had to face the banner waving group.

The whole scene perfectly summed up modern Britain.  The poor, the normal members of the public, the plebs were kept outside on the streets of one of the UK's most deprived and run down towns while the privileged whooped it up on champers and prawn sandwiches inside the Turner, kept safe from the baying mob by police whose wages are paid by us, the taxpayers.

Thatcher would have been proud.

Ace Cafe: Margate Meltdown 2013

For once, this event failed to live up to its nickname, Margate Pissdown ;)  Sun shone throughout the day and a huge crowd of bikers and spectators flocked to Margate.



Margate Meltdown 2013 (144 pics)

Farley Foxtrot - king of Margate cemetery

This chap is starting to get used to me now.  I got almost within touching distance of him today.  All I had to offer him was rich tea finger biscuits but he seemed to enjoy them.  He then went off and stole loads of peanuts from the birds, which someone had put down earlier. He was in sight for about half an hour, popping up here and there, and having a leisurely amble round the cemetery in the unexpected sunshine.



Farley Foxtrot (17 pics)

March sunshine

Spring has sprung - at least for now.  It'll probably be snowing next week.

March sunshine (62 pics)

Dances with foxes

Pair of playful foxes in Margate cemetery.

Dances with foxes (17 pics)

Blessing of the Seas 2013, Margate

I'll be honest, I don't really understand what this is about.  Other than it's a Greek custom to bless the seas and a young lad goes in the water as part of the ceremony.  A gathering of local dignitaries attend, watched by a mostly local audience of spectators.  But I kind of enjoy it, which is why I go and grab a few snaps :D


Blessing of the Seas 2013 (88 pics)

Randomonium 2012

Odds and ends from the (ahem) glorious summer just gone.

Randomonium 2012 (103 pics)