Sarah and I had booked and made plans for this Derby weekend quite a while back. Sarah grew up in Etwall, a village on the edge of the City of Derby, and this would be a weekend where I would be given a grand tour of her old stomping grounds. However since the original idea there have been other cycling trips to plan. So when the time came to prepare it seemed quite a surprise that it was suddenly upon us.

By chance this also happened to be the weekend of Derby Feste, a festival of, mainly free, outdoor performances.  When we arrived in Derby just after lunch on Saturday, and the sun was out,  so we  started by spending some time soaking up the atmosphere of the street performances.

Apart from the street performances we also took a look at some of the other aspects of Derby city centre including The Silk Mill, Derby’s Museum of Industry and History. Amongst other displays there was one focused around the history of the Rolls-Royce aero engines.

When planning the trip we had in particular wanted to visit Derby Cathedral. Dating back to 1510, this is a small but wonderfully peaceful place. A recommended visit if you are ever in the area. (As an aside – Sarah was very interested to read all about the nesting peregrine falcons).

We popped over to the Derby Cathedral Coffee House for refreshments, and by the time we left performances around the Derby streets had finished. So we headed over to the Travelodge and booked in before just as quickly heading off out again for an evening meal at Bartlewood Lodge.

This was so we could get over to Darley Park for 8.30pm in time for the start of Games Time. This was a spectacular large scale free open air event. Involving over 100 people there were amazing and colourful costumes, dance, film, music and fireworks. They depicted four teams in an imaginary game of chance.

A truly fabulous show to bring an end to an enjoyable Derby Feste.

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