Oh my, it rained and rained and rained and still the people came.

Under brollies and hidden in cagoules, toddlers in wellies stomping in the puddles, drips off every nose. But still the people came, to see the thousands of decorated pants hung as bunting around Armley Mill, to see the sheds done up in finest costumes and the stalls and acts and clowns and freaks and food and all the rest, all smiling and laughing in the face of the rain. Ha! Rain? Who cares!

And so to the giant pig, its ten suckling infants pressed up against its belly watching the show inside its gut, what a strange and wonderful animal to be lying snorting and wheezing under shelter from the heavens. Kids lined up all day to get a chance on a teat, all coming away happy and somewhat bewildered. 

Oh look there’s a man escaping from an outsize pair of underpants. No, really. And a bloke with a blue face and a guitar serenading some girls carrying a giantice cream cone.

 And the two gorgeous tea-dance ladies dispensing candy-covered buns, in their flowery Wellington boots and gaudy macs.

And Armley – The Musical, two performances squeezed in between the rust-red iron machinery in the old shed, an audience full to bursting out of the rain and into a magical world of Carpet warehouses, bookies, a jail and a barber’s shop with a parrot in the window. “Come to Armley, see the sights! From the Cedars to the Heights!” and we singalong and clapalong to a tale of love, dreams and property development set in Armley Library & One Stop Drop-In Centre, and where better to tell a tale of magic? Asbestos, horses on the moor,  a ghost with feathercut and highlights, fun for all the family. Splendid. 

And occasionally – just occasionally – the sun shone, smiled on the whole shebang, and then ran away laughing. Just to tease us all. We didn’t care, we were loving West Leeds and all its strange and wonderful artists and performers and craftspeople and cooks and singers and players, everyone right down to the kids in their Wellington bootssplashing in the puddles…