Woodhall Spa 40's Festival Pt1

Morning! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and in the UK it's finally sunny, hooray! Yesterday we went to Woodhall Spa, a quaint little place in Lincolnshire steeped in RAF and Dambuster history, for their first event 1940's festival. Considering it's their first the whole day was well organised and very well attended with many people, like ourselves, dressed up in period costume.
When we got to Woodhall Spa we headed straight for the Kinema in the woods as they were holding a WW2 theme show in their cinema. Those of you who don't know about Kinema and have never been should go!

The Kinema used to be an old sports pavilion and in 1922 was transformed into a cinema with a Charlie Chaplin film being the first ever shown in it. The main screen has a flat floor, so lets hope no one tall sits in front, and due to the low roof trusses the projector is at the back of the screen and not the auditorium. In 1994 Kinema Too was opened which has a graded floor and the comfiest cinema seats I've ever sat on. My favourite aspect of Kinema, other than the fantastic period decor, is that there's an intermission. When I was a child and there still was intermissions I thought they were the most pointless thing in the world, on with the show I thought, now I see the great value of them. Ice cream is served and also a much needed comfort break can be taken. During the intermission, usually only on Saturday nights, an old Compton organ rises up from the floor in front of the screen and plays a selection of old songs. Everyone cheers the organist, even the teenagers!

For the 1940's festival they played a selection of WW2 songs on the organ and some in duet with the piano as well as played some WW2 footage of government films and singers. There was a bit of a sing song too, it was a fantastic atmosphere and in the surroundings with everyone dressed 40's it was like a time machine and really brought home the messages of some of those films. It was all very real and in parts made me quite sad for those who lost their lives; the real reason we do things like this is to remember those people.

There was a vintage vehicle display further in town but we couldn't resist a pose with this one outside the Kinema. One thing we were so happy with was the weather. Many events lately have been cancelled due to the weather and I have been feverishly checking the forecast the week before hand to see if the same would happen this weekend. Happily not and there was a great turn out of people in the town, it must have been a great day for local businesses.

All of the shops had made a great effort and there were some great displays. I like cake so obviously this was my favourite one.

We then hopped on this old London double decker which was doing return journeys to Thorpe Camp visitors centre. Since it was so late in the day we only got about 15minutes at the Camp but it was worth it for the ride though the countryside alone.

When we got back to Woodhall Spa it was nearly 5pm and the festival was supposed to finish at 4pm, also I was feeling ill because happily I have a throat infection and a cold, so we decided to head home without seeing the stalls and things going on at the Jubilee Park. We're saving those delights for today as the festival is on all weekend. Today we will also be seeing Lola Lamour perform, she's my idol and I just can't wait!