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I had a lovely time performing my two shadow puppet suitcase shows “Jabberwocky!” and “Edward Lear’s Nonsense” at the “Light Up the Streets” event in Lancaster on Friday.

I had created light up hat decorations, (using my new top hat that I bought from a stall at Glastonbury Festival) and a light up buttonhole decoration specially for this event.  It was a bit of a challenge working out how to illuminate my costume for the event.  I couldn’t use anything that would catch on the shoulder and waist straps of the suitcase when I take them on and off and I couldn’t use anything so bright that it would interfere with the lighting for the shadow play by creating multiple shadows.  I think the overall effect, (using a combination of battery operated fibre optics and miniature fairy lights) was very attractive and worked very well.  I did get a number of compliments on my hat 🙂

I did my performances in the area between Lancaster Castle and The Storey Institute.

When it rained (a lot) I retreated inside the Storey and did a few performances in there for the wet and bedraggled audiences who swarmed inside to escape the weather.

I think people appreciated that they weren’t missing out on the entertainment by coming indoors.

Altogether it was a fantastic and friendly atmosphere and the rain did not dampen people’s spirits.

A big thank-you once again to Tim Austin for taking photographs of the show and generally helping out.  And a big thank-you to George Harris and The Duke’s for the use of their lovely dressing room, (quite a treat for a street performer).  And thank-you to all my audiences for turning out in the wet.