Week Six
Sunday No 6 - nearly (but not quite!) there.
We have been very fortunate with the weather this year, and we had another dry day which was great.
At eight o’clock in the morning, Festive Forestry duly delivered the tree - and it does look splendid. Certainly as tall as last year, if not quite as dense. Sadly, it is the last of the really good trees we have had from a site in Upper Sapey, so next year we will be looking for new trees. After the usual fun of heaving it into position, and driving in a large number of wedges into the manhole to make it safe, one crew (David W and Matt) dressed it with over 150 metres of LED lights and dozens of baubles. It’s a long way up to the top (over 30 feet) - and the views are amazing. Later, the two machines did the double act, lifting the lighting nets onto the trees on the left hand side. We keep looking at the trees on the right - it cannot be far off before we can dress those at Christmas as well.
Machine No 2, with Roger and Dafydd up top, spent most of the day going through the lights, changing dud bulbs and adding in smaller decorations, then taking current readings and testing all the trips. “See the Lights” had a fault which meant taking it back into the workshop and replacing a bit of ropelight.
An interesting problem with low voltage circuits is voltage drop, which means that lights a long way down a cable become dimmer. “See the Lights” was pretty dim when installed in its new position, so Kevin worked his magic by altering some circuitry to reduce losses - and now it works just as it should.
The last task was the installation of the power supplies for the new decorations in Pump Street next to the Falcon. They look quite something, as you will see!
There are three set pieces still under construction and reconstruction, which means lots more work for some of us this week; some of us are usefully retired, and DW has taken this week as a holiday to work on pieces, including this year’s light box project. So we will be out again, probably on Thursday evening and Saturday morning, with some last minute installation work.
Then the switch-on! The grotto crew are all lined up, working hard to make a Covid-secure environment - don’t forget that visits need to be arranged in advance through the Conquest Theatre website. In advance, we also have to say a big “Thank You” to all the volunteer stewards for the day, including the 4x4 club responders, first aiders, and people from the other Bromyard festivals. It’s not just the lights gang who do this - it is a very much bigger team, with briefings held beforehand. We want this to be as safe as possible, and we work actively with the Safety Advisory Group from the Herefordshire Council. Some people complain that we have asked everyone to wear face masks 😷 and be distanced, but we all need to do our bit to make sure everyone stays safe. Enjoy!