Well...I can now safely say that being on a tightrope is indeed a tense business. Yesterday we braved the typical Arctic April showers weather to watch an actual tightrope walker traverse a lake and it was tense. We went to the Day on the Lake festivities at Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire and watched the great and fabulous Bullzini balance his way elegantly across the water. I was enraptured. He lay down on the rope, he hung (intentionally) from the rope and he did a headstand on the rope. It was great. He appealed to all: I was marvelling at his skill and watched with mouth open whereas I think my son did have a genuine interest in him falling in the water - each to their own.
Apparently Rudyard Lake in Victorian times was the Blackpool of Staffordshire, attracting thousands and thousands of Victorians to the lakeside. In 1864 Carlos Trower traversed the lake on a tightrope and returned a few times over the subsequent years to wow the crowds. The Day at the Lake, running over the bank holiday is a celebration of those heady days. We ooed and ahhed at the tightrope extravaganza; my children heltered full kilter down the helter skelter; they rode on donkeys; we looked round a very wonderful craft market and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings of Rudyard Lake all to live music.
Apparently Rudyard Kipling's parents met here ...hence his name. My son would have been called Stalybridge if we'd emulated the Kiplings.....
Hope the weather is kind today and tomorrow for the Day on the Lake and that Bullzini wows audiences again and again.