Brownhills Canal Festival is another big hit!
Over the weekend of August 20th & 21st 2022 visitors have been treated to good weather, floating traders and historical boats, and a wide variety of traders on land at this year's Brownhills Canal Festival.
The festival was organised for the second time by the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust. The Trust took over from Birmingham Canals Navigation Society who ran the event for a number of years.
Admission is to the event is completely free of charge so it is hard to estimate how many people visited.
Organiser Christine Howles, whose promotion of the event through social media was undoubtedly responsible for it's success, said "We are delighted with the turnout and have had people come all the way from
Manchester amongst the locals.
"We have had 15 boats, a mixture of traders and historic boats and 26 stalls including
a shire horse dressed in all the old gear, which the public loved.
One reason for holding the festival in Brownhills is for the Trust to increase local awareness of the Lichfield Canal restoration project. The Lichfield Canal begins just over a mile further east along the canal.
"The canal through Brownhills doesn't get much boat traffic
because it doesn’t go anywhere," Christine added.
"But once we have restored Lichfield Canal, it will connect to more areas and see
more use.
"What we have found is because you don’t get many boats come through, the people
here have been so excited to see them.
"The boaters found people were running down their garden to welcome them as they
came to the event."
Christine added: "We had a café boat this year which was new and went down
really well.
"Some local firms came too which were great, Wand'ring Bark and The Jam
Butty to name one, a couple that sell their homemade jam from their boats.
"And I must mention the Brownhills Christmas Tree Appeal who brought their
tombola.
"We will definitely be doing it again next year, this year has been great.
"I would like to say thank you to all the boaters who came and to all the store
holders who made it a wonderful event."
