Wet Wet Wet - but gala beats the odds

Three of the four main events planned for the three-day Heritage Festival beat the odds and the weather to draw in the crowds.

And feedback from the people taking part has so far all been positive.

That was the feeling of Poulton Heritage Festival chairman Steve Saunders on Monday after a series of disasters struck an event that had been 15 months in the planning.

Things started to go wrong as early as last Thursday when camouflage nets needed to decorate homes, pubs and shops in Poulton could not be released on time.

And from then on things went downhill.

Temporary toilets ordered for the makeshift base camp' at Trimpell Sports Club were 24 hours late arriving.

A fun fair ordered to entertain children never materialised.

A pile-up on the M6 had vehicles heading for Morecambe caught in a huge tailback. Many turned around and went home.

And then there was the weather Steve says: "On Saturday morning we were facing a total disaster.

"There were 184 military vehicles booked in but, for one reason and another, only 28 got through. If it could go wrong it did but these were all things we could not control.

"We were very disappointed but we kept going, and it has to be said that the set pieces we had planned the beach battle, military parade to the Cenotaph and ball at the Dome all went well.

"The main objective was to honour and entertain the local veterans and we achieved that, so it was a success. The only thing that was a washout was the Torchlight Procession planned for Sunday evening, which had to be cancelled because of the weather."

He says that many of the Forties re-enactors and living history groups who came to the resort to join the celebration were positive' about the weekend.

He told the Citizen: "Everyone was impressed with Morecambe and what we were trying to do. They all want to come back - we just have to learn the lessons from this weekend, do it better and be much luckier with the weather next time."