Preview Gingerfest
Calling all redheads, there's a festival just for you!
Ginger icon Chris Evans
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Brilliant news for all you redheads out there: on April 10, Leeds (or, more specifically, Morely) is to play host to the first UK festival to celebrate red hair, appropriately nicknamed Gingerfest.
People of all ages are invited to take part in various activities, including a big redhead photo and a ginger hobby horse derby. There will also be an opportunity to join the Parrock Nook Band, a comic carnival group comprised of various homemade instruments and popular in Morley in the interwar years. All attendees are asked to bring a homemade instrument (it doesn’t matter if it’s an old saucepan or a metal comb) and familiarise themselves with some tunes, including ‘Rock Around the Clock’. “You can be in the biggest band in the world, playing the worst music,” says organiser and proud redhead Richard Simpson.
It won’t be the first festival dedicated to the hair colour. Every September thousands of people gather in the Dutch town of Breda to celebrate naturally auburn hair at Redhead Day. This inspired Richard to organise the Leeds event.
“Well, I thought, ‘why do you have the festival in Holland where there’s hardly any ginger people when we’ve got them all here?’ It started off as a bit of fun a few months ago and a lot of people really went for it.”
Of course, you don’t have to be ginger to take part. Richard insists that it’s just a bit of fun and there is no political message. Everybody in the big redhead photo will have ginger hair of some sort, whether it’s dyed, natural or a wig, but the other events are open to people of all hair colours. Special guests include Ed Balls and Glyn Watkins.
The festival begins in Morley at 10am. It is completely free to attend, and all money raised will go to the Lord Mayor’s appeal, which supports The Samaritans, Create and Riding for the Disabled. Further information can be found on the Facebook page (search for ‘The Great British Redhead Festival’) or by emailing brilliantredhair@yahoo.co.uk.
Posted on Friday 26th March 2010
Yasmin Lajoie
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Sending you to Twitter, hold on... Comments on Preview: Gingerfest
Comment by Richard Simpson
Posted on Sat 27th Mar 10 10:50 am
A couple of corrections. The three tunes to be familiar with are Edelweiss, Rocking All Over the World and The Entertainer.
The major event, the Big Red Photoshoot will take place at 3pm.
We retire to Stush club and bar at about 4pm till late to chillout.
