WE TOOK A TRIP TO THE ECCLES FESTIVAL 2022

We paid a visit to the Eccles Festival 2022 yesterday which was centred around Church Street and Eccles Precinct, with additional stage shows in the newly refurbished Eccles Town Hall which included Yemeni Dancer, The Barton Belles Acapella Group and Barton Players.

I had hoped to go on the vintage Salford City Transport bus which was taking visitors free of charge for a guided, history tour around Eccles and finishing at City Airport, on the half hour, every hour, I missed the 11.30am one and somehow just managed to miss the next one...

Memories of my days as a bus conductor, working out of Weaste Depot were revived with the Lancashire United Transport open decked bus parked at Eccles Cross, and to my delight the exact same, ticket machine that I used in those far off days, was on display along with other bus memorabilia.

Giant Unicyclists were weaving around the stalls, the bikes were gigantic not the cyclists... there were information stalls from the NHS Research, Victory Outreach Church, Future You, MS Therapy Centre, 

A tombola stall on Church Street was organised by Councillor John Mullen to help raise funds for elderly people with low income or carers to stay at The Salfordian Hotel in Southport, an admirable cause indeed.

Eccles Community Art Gallery had a special display on, good to see photographs from the wonderful, George Shepherd on display and new artwork from local artists including Stephen Campbell and Ged Buckley amongst others.

I was really impressed with the live music from Salford Youth Orchestra and dancing from youngsters who attend MAPAS, which had the audience, enthusiastically clapping and cheering along.

An Eccles Town Trail which gives a brief history of the town and 19 places of interest which was really informative was free to visitors and a tie- in quiz with questions on Church Streets history and local industry.

However, I was a tad disappointed that there were not that many food stalls, I can remember the Makers Markets when you could purchase all kinds of artisan food etc, and I can also remember there used to be a fancy dress parade down Church Street and finally it would have been good to see the Eccles Parish Church gardens used by community groups... gripe over.

Today saw a car boot sale on Eccles Recreational Ground which started at 8am, a chance to grab a bargain and a ride on the funfair with the family, what more could you wish for.