Thursday, July 21, 2022

Gala Day Season

One of the many things that was cancelled during the pandemic, and that has now resumed to a certain extent, is Gala Day season. For the uninitiated these are local celebrations largely intended to drum up some community spirit. Over the years they have waxed and waned in popularity, though they do seem much stronger in the middle of Scotland than further West - there were a good number when we lived in Falkirk, and there seem to be more now we live in Livingston.

Following the pandemic, the Gala Days appear to fall into three camps: about a third seem simply to be 'done' (they haven't happened this year and look unlikely to resume); about a third are still on hiatus but expected to return next year; and about a third have been back.

My band have attended three Gala Days so far this year (Mid Calder, Uphall Station, and Polbeth), and are attending another not-Gala Day on Saturday. We then have one in Broxburn later in the year.

All in all, this has been a fairly successful, if rather light, year - we usually do a few more galas than this, but on the other hand it was no bad thing to ease back in gently. Plus, the Gala Days that we have attended have gone pretty well (at least for our part!), and in particular Mid Calder was not the disaster I feared it might have been, given that we'd been away for nearly three years by that point.

No comments: