And then on to another of the highlights of the season, starting on Friday 15th August – a trip with The Outside Capering Crew to Sarvar, Hungary, to perform as The Big Caper at an International Folklore Festival, along with teams from Greece, Poland, Germany, Cyprus, Serbia, Czech Republic and France, as well as 3 Hungarian teams at various times. This turned out to be a great experience, with some excellent performance venues, and we were also extremely well looked after throughout. We were also fortunate to have hot sunny weather nearly all the time except for some rain on the morning of our last full day
The party assembled at Vienna airport, to be greeted by 2 young interpreters who we had been assigned, Adele and Reka. Reka was to stay with us throughout our trip, while Adele had to leave on our second day and was replaced by the equally helpful Kata, and they were to prove an enormous help to us throughout in a country where English is spoken only very little. We were first taken by coach to Sarvar where we were mostly accommodated in very comfortable apartments, with 3 of the party staying in a hotel very nearby. On our first evening, we were introduced to the bar in Nadasdy Castle, the main venue for the Festival, and we came to know both the Castle and the bar pretty well over the next few days. There we met up with the festival director Peter Marko, who Lawrence had drunk Parlinka with on many previous occasions when visiting previously with other English teams – in fact it was Lawrence’s connection with Peter that got us the invitation this time. And it took very little time for the party to get into the parlinka-ing mood. In fact almost before we knew it was happening some of the team had broken out into song, something BB have not been renowned for previously, but which was to prove quite a feature on the trip. David, especially, made some valiant attempts to lift the 500 year old roof off the castle, surprising all of us with his range – not his singing range, admirable though it was, but the distance he covered up and down the corridors while doing so.
The next day started with some outdoor rehearsals for the shows we were to perform later – the rehearsals were to prove quite a feature of several of our days. The first actual performance was later in the day on the outdoor stage in the Castle courtyard, as part of the opening show of the festival. We just had 15 minutes in this first show, but laid down a good marker in it, including a vigorous sword dance, and seemed to be very well received. After all the teams had performed, each had to demonstrate a ‘teaching dance’ to the other teams for them to join in with – for us, Simon led a vigorous Shepherds Hey, which went down so well he was asked to teach another one and obliged with a Crew style Knees Up. More drinking, parlinka-ing and singing followed, and Will, Mark, Alun and David in particular proved determined to demonstrate there was no such thing as English reserve when joining in with the other teams.
The next morning our first duty was to attend the Sunday morning Church service at the Calvivnist Church. “I’ve been to it before” declared Lawrence as he confidently led us off to the wrong church. Two minutes before the service was due to begin, while we were staring in some puzzlement at some impressively locked doors, Festival Director Peter arrived to tell us breathlessly to follow him – to the correct church. Anyway we just about made it to the right church in time, and contributed an excellent guitar piece from Andy and a song from David to the service. Afterwards in the small walled garden of the church we were offered some very welcome coffee, cake and other snacks, and after dancing ‘Rosa’ to Lawrence’s magical melodeon tune we followed up with other dances and the first appearance of the week of Simon in his horse costume. For this, Simon has Emma and Tracey to guide and perform with him, while Lawrence and Mark provide appropriate musical accompaniment (though not sure the Calvinist congregation was that familiar with ‘Steptoe and Son’). And after 2 dances on the trot even the BB neighsayers had to agree it was pretty amusing, despite the long faces.
Later in the day we had a 25 minute performance in Kossuth Square, a large square near the Castle with a fountain in the middle and surrounded by impressive buildings. Shortly before our performance started it was also surrounded by a large audience, and once again our dances seemed to go down really well, especially when we were able to inject some humour or beat up Simon, ideally simultaneously. After that in the evening we had a further performance in the Tinodi restaurant, where in our honour the restaurant’s menu for the evening was an English gourmet experience featuring delights such as fish and chips, sausage and mash etc. Here we only had a small performance area, so reverted to more traditional pub spot type dances, including a Fairies dance with the town Mayor, a guest of honour for the evening, being led through the Magic Arch. After we had also eaten, we used our newly found singing voices again to launch a Big Caper singing evening, with several different people leading a wide variety of songs sung to (or at) all the diners left in the restaurant, which included most of the mayor’s party, and a small group of Dutch who bravely stuck it out to the end. A couple of unforgettable songs were left in the collective memory at the end of the evening – Andy’s ten ton tipper truck song, and David proclaiming (while traversing the restaurant) “I don’t want to go to Art School, Art School, I don’t want to go to – Art School” (a Leyton Buzzards B-side from 1979 featuring David’s uncle on drums and no tune, as we quickly found out).
The next day, Monday, after more outdoor rehearsing, we set off by coach for Zalalovo, another town about 90 minutes away, where there were more performances from 4 of the visiting teams in a large outdoor marquee with a good quality stage and sound system. These included 30 minutes from us, which again went well, and when after the teams had performed a communal meal was served, followed by some further sharing of dances between the teams. It was Simon’s birthday, so all the teams joined in singing Happy Birthday to him in various languages. This obliged him to once again don the horse costume and, with some help from the rest of the Crew, engage with all the other teams – as much as you can engage in a horse outfit.
And then came Tuesday – Spa day! Sarvar’s spa is something like what we would think of as a water park – various different pools, outdoor play areas for children, and a whole variety of different water slides and chutes. Most of the pools are outside, but there are also some inside, along with a whole series of treatment rooms. However some of the pools feature ‘spa’ or ‘medicinal’ water, and some are heated, including one almost to body temperature. Lingering too long in it can cause a severe pinkening of the skin, as Jerry in particular found out for several hours afterwards. The point of us being there was partly so we had a chance to enjoy it, but also in the afternoon to put on a performance in the outdoor display area. This turned out to be an area just outside the main doors from inside to outside, and also directly between 2 of the outdoor pools. As a result, the audience was either wandering around blithely in swimming costumes or bathrobes, or actually in one of the pools, jammed up against the side and leaning on elbows so they could see us. A quite surreal experience, and possibly why although generally still very good, not all of the dances quite reached the standards we achieved the rest of the week. The absence of any obvious sight lines didn’t help either (that’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it). But nevertheless, great fun. And just when we thought our fun for the day was over, we were instead whisked off by coach for the evening to the town of Kormend, about an hour away, where the whole town was in festival mood on the eve of next day’s national holiday to celebrate the founding of the Hungarian State. After dark there was a short river pageant, where it seemed all the inhabitants of the town had gathered to watch the brightly lit boats career by while narrowly avoiding the main road bridge, after which there was a spectacular fireworks display. Meanwhile there were various other entertainments around town, and in the grounds of Batthyany Castle a high quality outdoor stage for performances from ourselves and 3 of the other festival teams.
Wednesday was the last day of the Festival. Our final rehearsal for the forthcoming evening performance was impeded somewhat by the first rain of the week, necessitating a strategic withdrawal to a corridor in the apartments for some rather constrained indoor practice. However the rain eased during the afternoon in time for the procession around town of all the teams. We quickly discovered that unlike an English style procession, with continuous dancing, in this procession teams walked between different appointed spots on the route and then did a short dance at each spot to quite large crowds who obviously knew what to expect. Once we got the idea it seemed perfectly logical and turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. The procession finished up back at Nadasdy Castle where an evening gala performance of all teams then took place on the stage in the courtyard, though not before Simon’s horse had appeared on stage during the official speeches for some interplay with the mayor and his magnificent moustache. Shortly after the evening had started, the rain came on again – no problem for the festival organisers who switched the performances to the equally large indoor stage in the huge marquee also sited in the courtyard for such eventualities. Our own performance once again went well, capping a week of polished and, we hoped, entertaining performances that seemed very well received wherever we went. Performances over, we repaired to the Festival Organiser Peter’s private office where he joined us for more parlinka, more of Laurence’s tunes, and more singing. This included David’s touching and tuneful ‘Tell Laura I love her’, sung to everyone’s surprise (probably including his own) on the spot. Then it was time for the last round of farewell drinks and goodbyes before another spectacular firework display lit up the town and signified the end of the festival.
The next morning we were back on the coach to Vienna before the party dispersed to return home or in some cases stay on for a few more days for some Austrian sightseeing. At Vienna airport we also said goodbye to our much appreciated interpreters Kata and Reka, who had been enormously supportive and helpful all week. Overall it had been a great experience, and we had been made to feel extremely welcome wherever we went. The hospitality throughout had also been excellent, with meals and transport all appearing whenever required, for which huge thanks to the festival organisers. Team spirit had also been very good throughout the week, and had resulted in consistent high quality performances and appreciative audiences – probably the best set of performances the Big Caper has achieved so far. So big thanks to everyone from BB and The Crew who took part, and particular thanks to Lawrence for getting us the invitation in the first place!
