This 10 day festival (end of October) was started in 1979 to boost tourism, and hence the economy, of the Keys. October boasts a beautiful climate for seeing the region, but was previously a slow time when retailers traditionally boarded up their shops and went away themselves.
The festival started life primarily as a gay party, but is now a lot more besides including balls, costume competitions, family-friendly parades, pet parades (where dogs, cats ducks and even ferrets have costumes), street parties, drag queen contests and AIDS fundraising events. Some even say the event rivals the New Orleans Mardi Gras.
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Louisville USA – October 6-7, 11-14, 18-21, 25-28, 2007, held at the Louisville Zoo.
This is one for the kids, not actually on the night of Halloween, but on the four weekends in October leading up to Halloween. If your kids find scary just too much to cope with, then this is for them; a sweet, fun filled early evening event more storybook than frightening.
It’s full of children’s favourite characters and gentle trick or treating for the under 11’s.
Who will they meet and what will they see as they wander round the Zoo?
The giant talking pumpkin – Mumpkin, greets all the visitors to the evening when they arrive
See Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
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Posted by Jill Bowen on Fri 14th September 2007 at 03:12 AM, Filed in Europe, October
3-7th October 2007 (Annual)
The Nottingham Goose Fair goes back some 700 years. It’s amazing how some of these ancient customs in England are still going strong, getting bigger as each year passes. It’s not actually a fair full of geese; its origins are a ‘Goods Fair’, first held to enable people to stock up of goods before the onset of winter. The charter goes back to the 1160’s when Henry11 granted it with the right to hold a fair for 8 days. Various Kings added to the Charter throughout the following centuries to increase the size and status of the Fair.
The name ‘Goose Fair’ dates from 1541, originally it was held on 21st September and whenever possible, geese were sold at the Fair (but not exclusively). The geese were walked from great distances to the Fair, 20,000 of them came from the Lincolnshire Fens – first having their feet tarred to make the walk easier! In 1752 there was a change of calendar when the Gregorian calendar was adopted, the Fair was then moved to October. By the end of the 18th century the Fair had changed, and it was not purely for solely buying and selling produce. New attractions were added, including Madame Tussuad, wild animals and theatrical events.
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